The saint of Academy City
by Willgm
Summary: Kamijou Touma is no more; upon his defeat the wielder of imagine breaker has vanished from the world while the magic god that had defeated him debates how to proceed. But what if a change in fate occurred? What if the decision was taken from the magic gods hands at the last minute? When the imagine breaker itself changes the rules the magic god must partake in a new story.
1. prologue

Prologue: A gemstone and the Railgun

"Damn it Ruiko! If this isn't your bad luck rubbing off on me then how can one explain this current misfortune!?" Those were the words, that even he himself realised sounded stupid, William Johnson yelled as he sprinted through the streets and back alleys of academy city.

Every few seconds or so he'd steal a glance behind him to see how his pursuers faired.

There were eight of them, each dressed in the recognisable style of a typical delinquent of baggy jeans and shirts.

It amazed Johnson slightly that even after running 2 kilometres all eight had managed to keep up with him.

Granted he wasn't moving at his full speed in order to allow them to keep up but still, usually by this time at least one of them would have given up had it been an ordinary situation.

Catching them flirting with one of the cities level 5's however wasn't an ordinary situation and to keep them from being beaten to a pulp he'd been a bit more aggressive in his approach at getting them to leave then usual.

Maybe that was why they hadn't given up yet?

Johnson shook the thoughts away, he could deal with that later. Right now his objective was to get them as far away from that particular level 5 as quickly as possible.

As he continued to run he moved his blame from a certain friend of his who possessed nothing but bad luck to the current date.

It was July 19th, the last day before the students awaited summer holiday; for the next six weeks it'd be nothing but fun and relaxation… after they finished their summer homework of course. Johnson himself had been in high spirits that day that he'd booked a table at a restaurant for three so he'd and his two girlfriends could have a nice, enjoyable evening meal with him entering a family restaurant down the street for a little snack beforehand.

When he'd entered the restaurant though he'd found a familiar middle school girl being harassed by a clearly drunk delinquent.

Knowing the girl and what she was capable of Johnson had made his way to getting the delinquent to leave when…

"Seriously, I thought only girls went to the bathroom in groups!" And so now here he was, on the run from a group of drunkards, thereby making him late and miss getting his table at the restaurant… how can that be called anything except misfortune!?

"Damn you guys! Because of you my girlfriends are going to be pissed! its either the sofa or the floor of me tonight because of you idiots!" If they even heard him or not mattered little to Johnson, he'd only shouted to vent his frustration so that he wouldn't just turn around and beat the crap out of them himself.

But he couldn't do that, his objective from the start was to prevent them from being beat up. To do it himself would make him a hypocrite… he silently cursed his own decision as he continued to move.

"G-get back here you damn punk!" as the chase continued through the city Johnson heard one of the delinquents yell in anger and exhaustion.

"Fat chance! You lot should be thanking me! That girl would have zapped your asses full of electricity if I hadn't stepped in!" Despite his yell he knew his words, in his situation anyway, were useless. Being both drunk and enraged the likelihood of them listening was the same as them becoming the next level 5

In other words zero.

The chase led them through a park where couples could be seen acting out their dreams and emitting their happiness for all single men to see. While Johnson himself wasn't single and in fact had two girlfriends his heart too sank for instead of being with them he was being chased by a group of eight drunken idiots.

This caused Johnson to get again yell out about his current misfortune… something that would cause anyone who knew him to tilt their heads in confusion as he was usually extremely lucky.

"Damn it punk! When I get my hands on you…!" After another kilometre was cleared the delinquent from before yelled out again, causing Johnson's anger to flare slightly; he was the only victim here after all.

"Quit your whining! If you want to stop then go ahead! No ones stopping you!"

After another kilometre was cleared Johnson had arrived at a large metal bridge. Unlike most others who'd would be sweating at the very least Johnson felt little aftereffects from the four kilometre run he'd just done… unless feeling slightly hungry counted of course.

"Huh, did I lose them?" long the way through that last kilometre the yelling had stopped and the only sounds he'd heard had been the sound of his own feet hitting the floor.

The fact that they'd stopped meant one of two things. Either they'd finally decided to give up, in which case the problem was solved and he could hopefully get back to the restaurant in time for some food, or-

"Just what was that? you working for Judgment now and decided to 'save' those level 0 delinquents? Hoping to get a pat on the back and a job well done from someone?"-or the level 5 from before had decided to take them out.

Johnson turned back towards where he came to find that same middle schooler standing before him, holding a bored expression on her face.

The girl had the appearance of a 14 year old wearing the uniform of the Tokiwadai middle school, one of the seven most prestigious school in the city.

The girl before him was Misaka Mikoto, otherwise known as the Railgun, and was third strongest of Academy city's seven level 5's.

She was also an old friend of Johnson's since his arrival in the city four years ago but they'd drifted apart after she'd reached level 5 status two years ago.

Now… they just butted heads whenever they met.

Johnson sighed as his gaze met hers, not only had his efforts of trying to protect the delinquents been wasted but now he had to deal with this immature brat.

"I take it that the delinquents are currently taken a nice electrified nap thanks to you?" a nod was the only thing he was given. "Great, just great"

Shaking his head Johnson walked past the strongest electromaster and prepared to make his jog back to the restaurant-

"Hey! don't ignore me Will!" Johnson turned his head just as the level 5 before him shot an electric spear at him.

Johnson's response was to throw one of the silver knife he'd kept in his sleeve towards it.

A millisecond before it hit Johnson the lightning hit the thrown knife and was shot out through the tip past Misaka's head.

Johnson sighed once again. "We've been through this before Railgun, I know all your tricks therefore you can't beat me." It was true, despite the Railgun being a level 5 and Johnson (officially) being a level 0 one could ask anyone in the city and they would say the level 5 would win every time.

That was not the case with the Railgun and Johnson however, in its simplest terms the Railgun's powers is the control of electricity. With that being the case all one needed was the reflex to place a specially made conductor that would reflect the electricity back through its entry point toward the user. An insulator in this case wouldn't work as the Railgun can send in millions of volts through her strikes, therefore it needs to be something the electricity can easily get through.

There were two problems with this plan, one being that it wouldn't work against her signature move the Railgun but that sorted itself out with that she wasn't a killer, she would never use the Railgun against an actual person… she'd use it against someone in a vehicle sure but not a person on their own.

The second problem, the only real one that mattered, was that a normal person wouldn't have the reflexes or the speed to be able to get the conductor between them and the electricity.

William Johnson wasn't a regular person though. Excluding the fact he was a natural born esper (known as a gemstone) he had always had an unnatural amount of strength, speed and luck that an ordinary person couldn't possibly have and while he had one theory on how it was possible he always dismissed it as it was impossible.

In any case, due to this unnatural speed of his (as well as his own esper power) he could fulfil this needed reflex and effectively block the Railgun's electric spears and other such attacks.

It had been thanks to this that he'd managed to beat the Railgun a year prior… on this very bridge now that he thought of it.

Misaka glared at the high schooler before her. She hated it, she hated that every time they fought in the last year he'd beaten her every time, without even using his power even!

"Stop playing around and fight me seriously!" she was tired of it, she'd had enough of losing to him and today she was going to set things straight!

Johnson however sighed and just looked at her. "All i've ever done is go all out against you Railgun. Being a level 0 This is the only thing I can-"

"Quit lying about that!" Johnson's words were cut off by the strongest electromasters cry. "We both know you can still use your power! I don't know why your record states you lost them after that accident two years ago but I damn well know you still have them!" In response to her words the self proclaimed level 0 bit back a remark he would have regretted. The 'accident' as she so put it had been anything but… not that he could tell her that considering what had been involved.

Still though, if he stayed here any longer then he'd be guaranteed to miss his evening with his girls.

"…Do you really want me to go all out on you Railgun?" his tone was casual enough but his eyes sent a message that sent a shiver down her spine.

It was a look that promised pain, it was a look that promised utter defeat, it was a look that made her realise that she could never beat him. She found her body frozen at the intensity of his gaze, harmful intent was leaking from him at this point and it causing her knees to buckle.

Make no mistake, Misaka Mikoto was a girl that, if anything else, was strong and dependable; especially in a fight. As an example she was called an 'Onee-sama' within Tokiwadai by its students, in particular a certain level 4 teleporter held her in an exceptional high regard but, behind all that, she was only a second year middle schooler who had never been in a serious fight before.

In other words she'd never had to fight for her life before.

And now, as she stood before someone who could release true killing intent, she could see the difference between them as well as a glimpse of what he's been through since his arrival in the city.

And then as quickly as it came into existence the intent vanished from the air. For a few tense, to Mikoto anyway, moments all was silence between the two… until a sigh from Johnson brought them back into reality.

"…Maybe that was a little too far." despite his voice being only a mutter the Railgun still heard his voice louder than any bell. "Damn it, i've missed the dinner entirely."

It took Misaka a few moments to notice he was looking at his phone with a small frown. Before she could say anything however.

"I'm going to cut this short Railgun I have to go, enjoy your summer." With that the boy that could bring a level 5 to a grinding halt fled the scene.

Inwardly Johnson counted down in his head.

3

2

1

"…GET BACK HERE!" the Railgun's shout echoed throughout the area as a bolt of lightning shook the city, hitting a power plant some miles away and causing a power outage throughout the city.

And as he ran to escape the angered electromasters wrath as she began to give chase he let out a final sigh with the thought:

'I'm gonna get blamed for this by someone… I just know it.'

And with that, for William Johnson and MIsaka Mikoto, July 19th ended.

 **Hello guys and welcome my newest story. Yep, this ones a To aru with our favourite OC somewhat taking the place of Touma.**

 **For those wondering what I mean by that you probably noticed that he's missing a certain important aspect of our favourite misfortunate hero.**

 **…Yep, Will does not possess the Imagine breaker in this fanfic. Not saying the imagine breaker isn't in this its just that neither Touma, who won't be in this fic at all, nor Will will possess it. I've already given a hint as to who has it but if you can't figure it out it'll be revealed later on anyway.**

 **In any case, I hope you enjoy this fic and please look forward to the next chapter, until then please R &R and i'll see you next time!**


	2. Chapter 1

**Hello everyone and welcome back!**

 **I want to thank everyone who's read the prologue (all two of them ;)) and thank you Pseudonym for your comment.**

 **After reading through your comment I have to say I agree with you on that I probably should have done that scene differently but hopefully both this chapter and the following ones will show how differently Will is from Touma.**

 **Anyway, i've hold you off long enough so on with the story!**

* * *

Chapter 1: A gemstone and the Index Librorum Prohibitorum

The first thing William Johnson did when he woke up the next morning was groan and stretch to attempt to appease his cramped back. Just as his words the night before predicted he had been forced to sleep on the floor as opposed to his own bed that he shared with his girlfriends as punishment for missing their evening with him… in addition to that he ended up unable to eat any food that night either.

Bottom line his back felt horrible and he was starving… not a great way to start July 20th, the start of his summer holiday.

After fully 'fixing' his back and getting dressed for the day Johnson made his way made his way out of the bedroom toward the counter outside his apartments kitchen to collect his wallet.

The reason for this was… well…

"…Damn that Railgun; all the appliances in the place are down because of her!" It would seem that due to yesterdays lightning storm, courtesy of a certain electromaster, all of the electrical appliances in the apartment he lived in were completely fried… that included the air conditioner as well as all the appliances in his kitchen.

This also meant that everything in his fridge were no better then toxic substances that had been bathed in radiation…

Okay, that might have been exaggeration on his part.

Johnson let out his first sigh of the day. "Such misfortune."

"That's my line Will." Johnson was brought out of his inner world as the sound of a voice coming from his queen sized bed.

"Come on, surely I have the right to say those words at least once Ruiko?" The girl on the bed, the one that was awake anyway, merely shrugged her shoulders before removing the covers and getting to her feet; consequently revealing the fact she was naked to the boy.

Saten Ruiko, a first year high schooler, making her a year younger than Johnson, and the owner of a mysterious power; the imagine breaker.

Neither the girl nor the boy nor even the woman still sleeping in the bed knew what it was or why it existed. What they did know about the mysterious right hand however was that it dispelled any supernatural power that came in contact with it. Be it the fire from a pyrokinesis, the lightning from an electromaster or even the divine blessings of god; none could stand the power of the imagine breaker and would immediately dispel it from existence from a single touch.

…It was also the reason Ruiko was labeled the goddess of misfortune by the rest of the city. Somehow the imagine breaker also seemed to negate all good luck; leaving with perpetual bad luck for as long as she possessed her hand hand and wrist, for that was where its power seemed to end in terms of radius.

Johnson had first encountered Ruiko the first day he'd entered Academy City. After meeting with a bunch of researchers to register his power into the databanks so they could determine its level Johnson had decided to wander around district 7 as that was where he'd be spending most of his time for the coming years.

It was in one of the many back alleys where he'd found Ruiko, an elementary schooler at the time, cornered by a gang of high schooler who'd seemed to be bullying her. Seeing her situation Johnson did the only thing he could: unleash his power and beat the group up.

At the begining it'd been easy for him; most of them had been level 0's and had quickly fallen after a single punch from his unnaturally strong punches. The last one however had proved a problem however for Johnson as he was a level 4 pyrokinesis who was very experienced in using his ability and had managed to land a surprised hit on him as he finished the last of his friends.

Or at least he would have been a problem and hit Johnson had Ruiko not intervened and blocked his attack with her right hand. This had surprised the high schooler long enough for Johnson to land a final punch and knock him out.

After that the two of them became good friends and, a year ago, a year after he'd encountered his other girlfriend outside the city on a holiday as a 'reward' for his deeds for the city by taking care of an… incident that could have ended up looking like an act of war, they became a couple…

Or rather he was forced to agree to a three way relationship between him and the two girls… not that he minded of course but he had been fully prepared to choose between the two of them had he had to.

Johnson gave Ruiko a quick glare before averting his eyes from her naked figure. "Just get dressed and wake Odin up; we're gonna have to eat out today due to that power outage."

Despite the fact he couldn't currently see her Johnson could tell the 'goddess of misfortune' was smirking at him. "You mean due to you picking on Mikoto-san right?"

Johnson merely shrugged his shoulders and left the room.

* * *

"No fun at all to tease you anymore Will." the wielder of imagine breaker muttered those words to herself as she made her way to the dresser to get dressed for the day.

After quickly putting on a pair of blue shirt and shorts she looked herself over in the mirror that was hanging on the wall beside her.

"Damn, my hair looks all messed up; would have been nice if he'd have brought that up." shaking her head at her boyfriends indifference to how bad her hair looked she moved to grab the comb back on the dresser… only to step on it instead and topple over.

"OW! that-" her words were cut off as the various items on the dresser fell off and landed on her head. It seemed that when she fell her head hit the dresser; causing it to bounce off the wall and throw everything on top of it in-front of it onto the ground below- but namely Ruiko's head.

"…Such misfortune." While most people would be shock or annoyed by their odd bad luck Ruiko merely uttered her catch phrase and picked herself up; picking up the comb she'd stepped on while doing so.

"As usual, your luck continues to amaze me Ruiko." a female voice spoke up form the bed.

"Oh, morning Odin. Did I wake you?" the girl on the bed, with the appearance of a 14 year old with blond hair and an eyepatch over her right eye, shook her head to the raven haired girls words.

Othinus, or Odin to both Will and Ruiko, was known as a magic god. A being with such a mastery over magic that they could manipulate reality itself through it with no exception. They were the ultimate magic existence that transcended into the realm of the gods and could be considered the pride of the magic side.

It was due to their immeasurable power that all magics organisations in the world, be it the church or just a separate magic cable, seeked, respected and feared them unconditionally.

To see the only known magic god in the known world in Academy City, the city of science and head of the science side, sounded like a ridiculous idea; one that seemed like the ramblings of an old drunkard that was mentally insane but, as they say, reality is stranger than fiction.

As to how such a being came to be in Academy city well… it started with a meeting between the magic god and an esper.

"I was awake when Will left the room. Honestly, he already knows not to meet up with that girl yet he keeps doing it anyway." If one focused on the magic gods words one would hear a faint fondness behind the annoyance that covered her tone as she mentioned the boys name, a testament of the feelings she held for her male lover.

Ruiko just smirked at the magic gods words. "Your just annoyed that this'll give you more work to do in addition to the other work you have to do."

In response to the girls words the magic god merely scoffed. "At least i'm helping to pay for this place; where's your inclusion imagine breaker?" the woman tone held a hit of amusement and her face held a teasing smile as Ruiko looked away bashfully.

"W-well, i'm just a high school student; I shouldn't be expected to pay for an apartment at my age."

"Will's a high school student as well Ruiko; he's only a year older than yourself after all." The smile on the magic gods face rose as the one who could dispel all supernatural power, be it esper or magic, fell to the ground in a defeated state.

"You're cruel Odin! You know I can't get any money in my position!"

Othinus's only response was to laugh at her female lovers misfortune.

* * *

William Johnson heard his two lovers talk and smiled to himself; his was the world he wanted to protect, the world where the two of them could just talk about the random of things, where those from either side didn't matter and it was just the three of them.

Yes, William Johnson was aware of the magic side of the world, had been since his first encounter with a magician that had infiltrated the city. That had been one of the hardest fights Johnson had faced since arriving into the city two years prior and it had only escalated from there with harder and harder opponents to face while delving deeper and deeper into the darkness that was known as Academy city.

Merely thinking about that incident still left a bad taste in Johnson's mouth; for it had both destroyed his chances of leading an ordinary life in Academy city and had shown what it was truly like for the first time. Then again… the incident had allowed him to meet Othinus afterwards so he couldn't say there weren't any positives.

Johnson removed himself from his thoughts and moved to the washing machine that still had the cloths he'd put in there the other day and placed them into a nearby basket. As they weren't staying in a student dorm complex and instead in a regular apartment they didn't have a main wash room so they instead had a washing machine set up in one corner of the kitchen.

"Best set these out to dry." As he muttered those words to himself Johnson picked up the basket and toward the balcony. As it was a nice day he figured he'd may as well let them dry out normally to the warm air instead of going across the street to the dryers.

He dropped the basket as he exited the main room.

Hanging onto the railing was… a girl. The girl appeared to be 14 from Johnson's estimate and had silver hair. She appeared to be dressed as a nun except that her outfit was white instead of black.

Johnson was in shock. It wasn't because seeing a nun was rare, though in Academy City it was, nor because she was hanging off of his balcony, though he was questioning how she got there in his mind. No, he was shocked because he recognised the girl before him.

"In…dex?"

8 years ago: St Georges Cathedral

 _Nine year old William Johnson stared at the cathedral in awe. In his nine years of living in London he had never seen such a beautiful building in his life._

 _The reason the boy was within the cathedral was due to his parents; both worked within the cathedral and so, naturally, they brought their son with him._

 _The reason he was in awe however was that his parents had never allowed him to enter as there was usual a sermon taking place whenever he came; at least that was what his parents said and who was he to disagree? Now though, Johnson had entered the cathedral for the first time._

 _The reason for this was that his parents were taking far longer than usual to come and so he'd gone in to find them._

 _Now though, he'd forgotten about looking for his parents and just wanted to stare at the stain glass windows._

 _"_ _Uh… excuse me." Johnson was brought out from his awe when a small, cute voice spoke out. In response he looked down at see a girl by the age of six dressed in a white nuns outfit._

 _"_ _Um… hi."_

 _"_ _Um… If you're here for the sermon i'm afraid its already ended."_

 _"_ _Yeah, i know. I'm just here waiting for my parents to come but they were taking too long so I just… came in." The boy found himself embarrassed at his confession._

 _"_ _Oh…" The girl with silver hair and big green eyes gave a big smile to the older boy. "That's okay then. I'm Index!"_

 _In response to the girls words and smile he found himself blushing at her cuteness._

 _"_ _Nice to meet you Index, I'm William Johnson."_

 _At his words the young nuns eyes widened. "WOW! You're father Johnson's son!?" The boy nodded to her enthusiasm. "That's wonderful! He always kept saying he had one and I really wanted to meet him!"_

 _"_ _Is that so… do you want to play with me then?"_

 _The girls excitement disappeared and a look of confusion replaced it. "'Play with you', what do you mean?"_

 _The boy looked at her in shock. "You've never played before!?" she shook her head._

 _"_ _No, i've left the church so…" The girls words shocked the boy; she'd never been outside the church before? she'd never been outside and played with someone before? Johnson felt an unfamiliar emotion grasp his heart as he processed the girls words._

 _Was was this emotion called…? Oh, that's right… it was anger. The boy was feeling angry towards the people working at the cathedral, his parents included, for keeping such a cute girl locked up in a building all the time. As such… before his mind caught up to his emotions he'd grabbed the girls wrist and ran towards the door._

 _"_ _Hey! Where are we going?" The young girls words registered with the boys ears but he ignored the protest he picked up in them._

 _"_ _We're going outside to play, where else?"_

 _In response the young nuns face became covered in concern. "But Father Johnson said-"_

 _"_ _Who cares what Dad said!? We're going outside and we're going to have fun, okay Index?" to accompany his words Johnson sent the younger girl a small smile._

 _For a few moments the girl silent until a genuine smile of happiness exploded onto her face. "Okay!"_

 _And with that the two children exited he cathedral and their friendship began._

Present day

Johnson stared at the unconscious nun in bewilderment. He'd already carefully picked her up off from the railings and had placed on the more comfortable sofa.

Absentmindedly he noted that she really hadn't changed that much appearance wise in the four years he'd been away from London; with her having grown a bit taller but that was the only real difference he could spot.

Physically anyway.

"Huh, so this is the Index Librorum Prohibitorum. I almost find it hard to believe this girl possess the accumulative knowledge of 103,000 grimoires in her memories." Johnson was brought out of his thoughts by Othinus's words. The magic god was currently (thankfully) fully dressed in an ordinary attire of denim jeans, and shirt instead of her 'usual' attire of amounted to swimsuit- or at least thats how it appeared to Johnson- with a cape and witches hat. After what had felt like years to the boy he'd managed to convince the woman to dress appropriately for public eyes- something she still resented him for but paid no heed to.

She was currently also looking over the sleeping nun with a faint look of interest yet with a look of dismissal; as if she found the 103,000 magic tomes in her head to be insignificant and below her notice.

Which was just her typical attitude towards most things; Johnson himself included half the time.

"In any case, what's she doing in Academy city?" the question came from Ruiko, who was looking at the girl with what amounted to pity and concern. The reason was that it wasn't hard to guess what the girl had had to go through in order to obtain those tomes.

Just thinking of what she'd had to go through made Johnson's spine crawl yet cause him to clench his fist in anger. It was obvious to him that the church didn't truly care for her well being if they were willing to let her go through with reading every single original volume of each major grimoire in the world.

"I don't know," Johnson's voice was faint but the anger held within were clear to both girls. "I don't know… but I know, now that she's here, that that means they'll be at least one magician entering the city to 'retrieve' her for their cable." It was a theory that had no base nor proof but it was one all three individuals could agree on. While it was true that Index belonged to the Anglican Church and was therefore not a target either the Roman catholics nor the Russian orthodox would target magic cables that weren't afflicted with any of the churches could attack to get their hands on the grimoires.

It was for that specific reason that she was assigned partners to look after her or was just kept locked up in the St Georges Cathedral; the headquarters of the Anglican church; where she and Johnson first met.

That caused even bigger questions to arise though, like why she was in Japan in the first place?

"Whatever the case may be on how she got here, getting angry over the past won't solve anything Will." Othinus's words were directed towards Johnson, who's fist was still clenched.

"…You're right, I suppose we can only ask her when she wakes up."

Nodding to himself Johnson got of his knees and onto his feet. "I think we should let her stay here while she's in the city." His words were answered with nods from the two girls without hesitation. "Okay then, then let's-"

"I'm…" his words were interrupted by a familiar-to Johnson-voice. turning his head back to the sofa his gaze was met by a pair of large, pleading green eyes.

"Oh, you're awake." a smile spread to Johnson's face. "That's good. Are you-"

His words were once again cut off by the 14 year olds words. "I'm… hungry."

Silence, for what seemed like an eternity Johnson, Ruiko and Othinus looked at the girl with widened eyes.

"…Huh?" was the only thing Johnson could utter.

* * *

"Ah! this is so good!" shouted the 14 year old nun known as Index as she sank her teeth into her third helping of a breakfast omelet.

"Glad your enjoying it Index." was the response from the boy opposite her. Index stopped diving into her food for a moment to get her first good look at him.

The boy before her, whose name she'd discovered William Johnson, was currently holding a small smile on his face as he cut into his own omelet. The boy before her was tall, about 200cm (6'7 ft) with brown hair cut cleanly flat to the side of his head and possessed a pair emerald green eyes quite similar to her own. He was dressed in what he claimed was his school uniform- what a school was however was lost to the nun as she'd never heard of the term- which consisted of a white shirt and black trousers.

For some reason, despite that she had no prior memories up to a year ago when she'd first woken up in a back-alley, Index couldn't help but smile at the boy; it was just something she couldn't prevent and if she was honest with herself she didn't care. The boy, so far at any rate, had been extremely kind to her; offering to take her out for food, answer any questions she had about anything she saw in the strange city she'd found herself in- in boy said she was in Academy city- and had said she could all she wanted.

All and all she was liking the boy more and more as the day went on.

"…Honestly, you're spoiling her too much Will. She doesn't even remember you so why are you treating her like this." Index turned her head to the source of the voice, the blonde haired girl, with an eyepatch over her right eye, named Othinus, who was frowning slightly. Something about her put her on edge yet the boy just rolled her his eyes towards her.

"Would you just give it a rest Odin… I'm well aware she doesn't remember me anymore but it doesn't matter. Even if she doesn't remember she's still my friend; she's still the person I met 8 years ago in that cathedral." at his words the one who possessed photographic memory felt a stab of guilt hit her heart. After her initial words when she'd woke up in his apartment she went on to explain she had no memory of any events from a year prior after he'd started to act as if he knew. His response had been… disheartening for her.

For the briefest of moments his eyes held the slightest traces of hurt before he seemed to suppress it and put on a smile.

 _"_ _Oh, I see…"_ had been his initial response.

"I'm with Will there Odin, memories don't make up a friendship, its whether or not you enjoy their company and have fun with them." Index turned her head away from the one-eyed girl and turned to the other girl, whose name was Ruiko, who had raven black hair instead though their hair seemed to be in a similar style.

In response to her words the girl apparently named 'Odin'-Index was finding it hard to believe that her real name was the same as the chief of the Norse Gods- merely snorted. "Doesn't matter if she can't remember it."

No more words were exchanged after that and the rest of the meal was eaten in silence. The atmosphere wasn't awkward nor uncomfortable- quite the opposite in fact. The air around them was calm, as if to say arguments like that were the norm between them. Index found herself truly confused as she continued to watch the three people before her interact; they seemed to live together-even sleep together from seeing as only a single bedroom seemed to be in use at the apartment- and yet the girl with the eyepatch acted indifferent to the boy and other girl and almost seemed to find them annoying to deal with. In contrast the the other girl acted quite openly with affection practically pouring out of her words.

As for the boy… he acted with a calm acceptance towards the eyepatch girl- that Index was going to call witch from now on- and with just as equal affection to the raven haired girl. Either way though, he seemed to hold a hidden joy towards both girls and they both seemed to give him the same joy as well.

For some reason it made Index ache in her chest when they interacted.

* * *

After they finished their breakfast Johnson, Othinus and Index- with Ruiko having ran off to school as she had remedial classes due to her having zero marks in her power curriculum test scores- not that she could help it with possessing the imagine breaker- wandering the streets of district 7.

"? Where's Ruiko going?" Johnson turned his head towards the confused nun as they continued to walk.

"School," was his answer. "She's behind on her marks for the city's power curriculum course due to her right hand so she's being forced to attend school to catch up on a class she can't actually do anything in."

Following his explanation the now satisfied nun frowned. "That's stupid, if she can't do it then she can't do it; why are they making do it if she can't?"

"Because Academy city can't detect imagine breaker. It doesn't give of an AIM field so to them, the researchers, its just a regular hand."

"…I still think its stupid." Johnson chuckled slightly at her tone and visible pout.

"So do I but theres nothing we can do about it."

"Will…" After a few minutes of wandering through the district Ohtinus suddenly spoke up.

"Yeah?"

"I do believe there's someone over there waiting for you." following her words the magic god gestured to the other side of the street where a pale boy with irregular white hair and red eyes was standing appearing bored.

"Huh, what's he doing here?" Johnson muttered the question to himself before quickly giving a goodbye to Othinus and Index and running over the road.

"About time you noticed idiot." The boy gave Johnson a quick glare before gesturing towards a nearby cafe. "We'll talk in there."

Johnson merely nodded. "Right behind you Vector."

Vector, also known as Accelerator, was the number 1 ranked esper in Academy city. Johnson and him had met around three years when he'd accidentally taken a wrong term in an alley and found him surrounded by a group of ten delinquents. After helping him, not that he needed it, in dealing with them the two ended up meeting regularly through sheer coincidence and eventually became friends.

As Accelerator couldn't remember his real name anymore and just went by his nickname Johnson settled with calling him Vector after his ability vector change.

"…So, what's so important that you needed to see me for it." The two were currently sitting in the cafe Vector had hinted to earlier and were each sipping from a cup of coffee. Johnson felt a slight concern as Vector would only have shown up if there was big news… be it good or bad.

"I got news from Yoshikawa, they're planning to start experiments around the city." Johnson found himself stunned.

"Are you sure about this? If that's true then-"

"Then we'll finally be able to get that bastard Dark Matter."

The 'experiment' that the two were referring too was the Level 6 shift project, an experiment to create the scientific version of a God- a level 6. The original plan from what Johnson had found out was to use the DNA map of Railgun to create 20,000 clones for Vector to fight so that he could 'shift' into level 6.

The specific reason Vector had been chosen was because he was the only one of the level 5's able to remain stable after shifting to that level of power as any of the other one's would result in their minds imploding and becoming something akin to a white dwarf or supernova.

Either way it would destroy them entirely.

That had bene the original plan anyway. The experiment was forced to take a change after Vector refused to partake in it.

Johnson didn't know of all the details after that but he did know that the head scientist in the project had abandon the notion of getting a stable level 6 by the end of the experiment.

They'd eventually settled on the original plan only with using the 2nd strongest esper in the city: Dark Matter instead… it seems they no longer cared about the sacrifice that would come with him ascending to level 6 and instead only cared for the instant Kakine became a level 6 and what'd they'd learn from it.

Now instead of 20,000 clones being made 35,000 were to be used instead.

Johnson wasn't sure of what to think about that recent development; on one hand that meant it'd be easier to stop Dark Matter by challenging him during one of the experimental sites…

On the other hand that meant there was a bigger change that Railgun would discover the experiments existence. Johnson couldn't let that happen; if Rail-… if Mikoto discovered the clones and that they were throwing their lives away she'd undoubtedly blame herself and try to solve it on her own.

Except it would be impossible for her ,a level 5, to do. The only true way to stop this experiment, that Johnson could see, was to defeat Dark Matter and force it to be halted.

And to do that a 'level 0' needed to beat him. He was selected because he was seen as the strongest after Vector so if it were shown he was actually weak, weak enough that a level 0 could beat him, when they'd be forced to shut it down as, if a zero level could beat the 2nd strongest esper in the city, they could probably beat all the other level 5's as well… in theory anyway.

It wasn't the best plan but it was the only plan that could work in the situation.

Vector gave out a sigh. "So who's the chibi nun you and Odin were with?"

"…Just an old friend, Threw me for a loop when I found her on my apartments balcony though." Vector gave hi an odd look briefly before shrugging; wasn't his business was probably his thoughts.

"So is that it or is there something?"

"What, you do enjoy my company anymore?"

Johnson shook his head. "Its not that, its just I haven't seen that girl for four years and 'd like to… catch up."

If Vector had heard his slight pause he didn't show it. "Whatever, yeah; that was the only thing I had to say… unless the fact I saw who appeared to be a priest hanging around your apartment counts."

Johnson froze. "…What?"

"When I went to your apartment to find you I saw a priest glare at the building. He seemed to be setting up- hey, where are you going!?"

Before he could do anything Johnson had already ran out of the cafe door.

* * *

"Stiyl, I have located Index." The magician Stiyl Magnus turned his head away from his target, a boy with the appearance of a 17 year old at the same height as him and turned toward his partner.

The girl before him stated a foot taller shorter than himself, despite being four years older than him, while being dressed in a white T-shirt tied into a knot behind her back and jeans that, for some reason, had one of its pants legs cut off.

The woman's name was Kanzaki Kaori, a fellow member of the Anglican church and one of the less than 20 saints in the world.

"…Good, is she alone or is she with one of those woman?"

"She is currently with the girl with an eyepatch over her right eye." in response to her words Style merely nodded.

"I see… see if you can find a way to separate them or get them into a secluded area. I'll prepare an opila rune if I have too after I deal with this guy."

"…Is there someone wrong Stiyl?" to her words Style merely scoffed.

"…I'm fine Kanzaki, i'm just thinking of how we'll have to rob happiness from her again." The saints expression momentary melted at his words; her cold, indifferent, expression turning into one of understanding and pain, before returning to her normal expression.

"Understood, I wish you luck." with that the girl with superhuman strength leapt from building to building to follow her old friend and the mysterious woman.

"…To think, of all people it would be, it'd be you; Will." With that the magician Stiyl Magnus leapt off the building to follow his old friend.

* * *

William Johnson found himself running through the streets of district 7. After hearing what he had from Vector he was currently heading toward a certain area where he was sure he wouldn't be discovered. He needed to call Othinus, he needed to make sure she and Index were fine.

While it was true she was a magic god and therefore someone who couldn't be beaten by any conventional means there was always a change she was challenged to combat and have one of her spells backfire on her. That was the main weakness of a magic god; while their spells held phenomenal power and was able to alter reality itself they had a 50/50 change of either success or failure.

And if the spell were to backfire…

Johnson attempted to shake the images out of his mind but it was no use; images of a scene he never wanted to see again, of the proud and strong magic god he'd come to love beaten and broken apart by her own spell.

The images continued to flow, images of her cracked skin, of her disintegrated bones, of her unrecognisable facial features. Those images haunted him, scared him, and had done so for the two years he'd known her.

And why wouldn't they? he was the reason she'd ended up like that.

Focusing all his will Johnson finally managed to shake the images from his mind. The whole ordeal had lasted only ten seconds but the result was clear on Johnson's face.

Sweat poured down his face and his breathing was deep and easily hearable to those around him. Ignoring all the concerned looks he was getting Johnson crossed over into district 15 by cutting through the back-alleys and not commonly known shortcuts which eventually lead into a warehouse that didn't seem to be in use.

Perfect.

By this point Johnson had calmed his nerves and easily dialled Othinus's number.

"Odin?"

"Hmm, what is it Will?"

"Are you and Index safe? have you run into any odd characters or seen any?"

Othinus was silent for a few moments before answering. "…I'm sensing someone watching us from somewhere in the underground mall." So they were in district 7's underground mall? That was good, it was unlikely that a magician would be able to get them in a secluded location if they were there.

'I see, that's good."

"? Is there a problem?" Concern seemed to enter the magic gods voice but he disregarded it.

"No, there doesn't seem to be-" Johnson cut his words off. "…Let me get back to you on that."

"Hang on Will. don't you-" he ignored her and cut the call.

"…You can come out now magician." in response to his words a boy that appeared 14 at the same height as him walked out of the shadows; his black priest robes seemed a direct contrast to his blond hair dyed red. A barcode tattoo was engraved under his right eye and his scent held a strong array of perfume. Earrings were pierced into both ears, rings were worn on each of his figures and a cigarette could be seen sitting in his mouth.

All and all despite his cloths indicate his place as a priest everything else about him offered the contrary.

"…Its been a while, Will." A not so hostile smile covered his face and seemed to hold a form of regret.

"It certainly has… Stiyl." The same smile on the priests face covered Johnson's.

* * *

 **And… cliffhanger. Hurray for being a bastard for leaving my readers in suspense! ;)**

 **I hope everyone's enjoyed this chapter and if anyone see's anything wrong don't hesitate to tell me so I can fix it.**

 **Self checking can only get you so far after all. :)**

 **Anyway, next chapter involves the contains a fight with Stiyl and other such problems in the Index arc.**

 **Tell me what you think and i'll see you next time.**


	3. Chapter 2

**Hello everyone and welcome back. Sorry for a bit of a delay, i'd originally planned to release last Sunday at the latest but oh well; its here now.**

 **Thank you everyone for your comments and I hope this chapter will met your expectations.**

 **Also Pseudonym: I'm happy to hear you enjoyed last chapter and that I could meet your expectations. In regards to why Will was sent to AC it'll be revealed later when he pieces things together after gaining some facts later on.**

 **Also, in regards to Othinus… well let's just say i've left a hint about her that'll confirm your suspicions.**

 **In any case i'll stop taking up your time so on with the story!**

* * *

 _Chapter 2: Battle against a friend_

 _7 years ago: St Georges Cathedral_

 _10 year old William Johnson and 7 year old Index were happily playing in the park across from the St Georges cathedral. It had been a year since their initial meeting within the cathedral itself and within that time the two of them had become the best of friends._

 _And while Johnson had been made fun of by his classmates and other male friends for hanging around with a girl- one younger than him in fact- he'd paid it no heed. He couldn't exactly place what it was but he just found himself connected to Index in a way that was unlike his relations with his other friends._

 _Was it her energetic personality? was it that she acted like an adorable younger sister? was it her complete faith in him that he'd protect her no matter what- as he'd had to several times from bullies and other such children over the past year-? Johnson well and truly didn't know nor did he care. All that mattered to him was that he found her a great person to be around and nothing could change his mind on the matter._

 _Across the road, out of the children's vision, two people watched the boy with an unnatural body and nun with an unnatural memory play around oblivious to the world around them. One was a man that appeared to be an older image of the boy; his brown hair could be seen reaching to his shoulders and his green eyes held the emotions of joy as he watched his son with a smile on his face. Covering the man was a black priest robe where a rosetta could be seen around his neck. This was Mitchell Johnson, one of the head priests of the St George cathedral and the father of William Johnson._

 _"They certainly seem to be having fun don't they Stiyl?" the smiling priest turned his gaze away from the happy pair and turned to the boy beside him._

 _Stiyl Magnus was a 7 year old boy with blond hair that, similiar to the priest beside him, reached to his shoulders and held a pair of hazel eyes. He had been, until quite recently, an orphan living on the streets of London after a fire had consumed the lives of his parents as well as his home. Officially it had been the work of terrorists attacking the city. Unofficially it had been the result of a battle between the members of the Anglican church and an independent magic cable that had attempted to assassinate the royal family in hopes of obtaining a certain magical artefact that was kept locked in Buckingham palace._

 _The battle had razed a portion of London to the ground and with it Stiyl's parents. Having discovered this the church had tracked the boy down and taken him in for sanctuary. Now the boy wore the robes of a priest in training ._

 _"…" Stiyl ignored the priests words and merely watched the two still oblivious children play with a slight pain in his heart and envy clear in his eyes. How long had it been since he'd last done that? Who long had it been since he just ran around an empty clearing just for fun?_

 _"How long had it been since he'd last_ had _fun?_

 _"…Do you want to join them Stiyl?" the young priest in training turned to the man in shock._

 _"But what about my-"_

 _"They'll be plenty of time for you to learn how to be a priest Stiyl but only a limited time for you to be a child. You should enjoy it while lasts; Lord above knows I didn't and I regret to this day." despite what sounded like a sad thing the grown priest laughed as if to say his past didn't matter to him._

 _"…Are you sure father?" His tone was hesitant and wrapped in hope._

 _"I said yes already didn't I? now go on and have some fun!" finishing his words the priest pointed his right index finger towards the playing children._

 _"…Thank you, father Johnson." with that the boy known as Stiyl Magnus left the priest's side and crossed the road into the park._

 _"…Have fun while you can boy, for the next few years will be quite a trial for you." satisfied with his efforts the priest walked back into the cathedral._

 _William Johnson hadn't noticed the boys approach until he stood a few feet before them. Taking his eyes away from Index's happy expression he turned towards the blond haired boy that had entered the park._

 _"Hi, do you need something?" Johnson sent the younger boy a quick smile before signalling to Index to stop for a minute._

 _"Uh, well…" The boy's tone was hesitant and he seemed to be shaking._

 _"Are you okay, are you cold? are you sick?" worry entered Johnson's system as he watched the nervous figure of the boy in priest robes._

 _"No! No, I- i'm fine I just- I just wanted to ask if I could… if i could…" He couldn't seem to get the last words out of his mouth and his fidgeting had increased as he spoke. Johnson's worry quickly turned to confusion; 'wanted to ask if he could… if he could…' what? if he could play with them? was that it?_

 _"…Do you want to play with us?" wanting to test his theory Johnson asked the question._

 _"Uh, y-yes. Could I… play with the two of you…?" Stiyl Magnus found himself worried. Did they even want to play with him? Did they even want him near them? What if they knew he'd lived on the streets and didn't want to be near him because of it? In the boy's worry he didn't notice Johnson and Index whisper to each other for a moment before both nodding._

 _"Sure! the more the merrier." Still Magnus found himself frozen at the silver haired girls words. Did they actually mean it?_

 _"Really!? You- you're sure the two of you are alright with it!?" his tone came out more forceful than he'd intended but he didn't care; he wanted to make sure they weren't playing a trick on him._

 _"What, you think that face of hers could lie about such things?" Johnson's tone held a small manner of humour yet with genuine joy. "You didn't have to watch us from across the street for that long you know? you could have just asked from the beginning." At the older boys words Stiyl found himself in shock; he'd seen them? but they hadn't even looked their once since they'd started!_

 _"H-how do you know we were watching? you didn't look our way once!"_

 _In response Johnson merely shrugged his shoulders. "Don't know, I guess I just felt your gaze or something? Dad always said my senses were better than most peoples."_

 _For the second time in under a minute Stiyl found himself in utter shock. his senses were better than most peoples? did that include grown adults? was that even possible?_

 _The younger boys thoughts were cut off when Johnson spoke up again. "Does it really matter how I knew you were there? You're here now so let's just start playing huh?" Stiyl didn't know what it was, from either the welcoming gazes from the two of them or just the simple fact they were being this nice to him he wasn't sure. All he knew was that he currently felt the most happier in that moment then he had been in months- or even years- and so, like any extremely happy person did, he cried tears of joy._

 _"H-huh! Why are you crying!?" Worry shot through Index as she quickly tried to make her way towards the boy before being stopped by Johnson._

 _Oi, oi; you're a boy aren't you? man up and dry those tears. Even if they're tears of happiness we don't cry okay?" Johnosn's tone held no indication of teasing as he patted the boy on the shoulder as if to comfort him._

 _After a minute or so the tears stopped. "S- sorry about that."_

 _"Its fine, couldn't be helped right?" a smile was on both boys, both older and younger, faces._

 _Both Stiyl and Index looked at Johnson with an odd eye after he suddenly slapped his forehead. "I just remembered! We haven't introduced ourselves!"_

 _He slapped his forehead again. "Names William Johnson, my dad's the priest you are with earlier, and this is Index. What's your name?"_

 _"…Stiyl Magnus." And with that, the group of two became the group of three._

* * *

Present day

"…Stiyl." Johnson looked toward his old friend with a mixture of happiness and regret. Happiness because, like Index, this was the first time he was seeing him in four years and regret because… he was going to have to fight him.

"I should have known i'd run into you Will. The moment we discovered she'd escaped into Academy city I just knew you'd end up finding her first." the magician Stiyl Magnus held within his voice both emotions Johnson himself was feeling. Both individuals had missed the other over the years they'd been separated and despised the circumstances that were currently slapping them in the face.

"…Why are you chasing her Stiyl? when I left London four years ago I entrusted you to look after her. So tell me, why is she saying she's being chased by a pair of magicians?" There was no anger in his voice for he couldn't muster it. There was no acceptance in his voice because he couldn't believe it. Sadness was the emotion that travel in his words; sadness and pain over this recent development was striking into his heart hard and he was sure his… opponent, was feeling the same.

"…How painful do you think it was Will? How painful do you think it was for me to have to erase her memories again and again with no hope in sight!?" Unlike Johnson Stiyl's voice held anger towards his friends accusation and it brought him to a grinding halt.

"It hurt Will! It well and truly hurt having to see her face in pain again and again as her brain reached neared overload. It hurt having to watch her wake up and not know who I was! It hurt having to suffer that every year no matter what I did!"

…Each word was a stab in Johnson's heart. Each sentence struck a critical blow to his core. William Johnson, in the end, was a person that fought to protect his loved ones and to make sure they could keep on smiling. It was due to that that he'd gotten involved in stopping that magician two years ago, it was due to that that he kept Misaka Mikoto from learning of the Level 6 shift project, it was due to that that he'd entered the cities dark side…

…It was due to that that he'd fought and ****ed one of the less than 20 twenty saints in the world last year.

But now, seeing his old friend in such a state, to see that the person he saw as a little sister no longer remembered him and to have been forced to memorise 103,000 grimoires because of the church while he was away, made him realise that he'd failed that objective without him even realising it.

"…Stiyl, I… I…." The words wouldn't come; no matter what he tried the words wouldn't come, couldn't come and never would for what could he say to make up for all he's missed while he lived in Academy city?

…But there was something that didn't make sense to him. Stiyl said that he'd been forced to watch her in pain as her brain reached overload. What did he mean? and why did he have to erase her memories to begin with? It wasn't entirely unknown that the human brain could store up to 140 years worth of memories and even if one reached that limit it wouldn't implode on itself and cause an overload.

Even in the case of Index, someone with a photographic memory who'd never forget anything she saw and who'd memorised 103,000 books wouldn't need to have their memories erased no matter how much she learned in the spam of a year. Hell, she could probably memorise and few more thousand grimoires and she'd still be fine so that begged the question:

Who'd told Stiyl Index needed to have her memories erased every year and, if what he said about her being in pain when that yearly interval was up, who'd made it so it _needed_ to be erased every year for her to live?

…No, that didn't matter currently in William Johnson's eyes. Stiyl probably wasn't in the mood to help him answer those questions so there was only one thing he could do:

He would have to fight.

"…So you've preached to me about your woes over the last few years but now what?" Johnson's tone changed drastically; so much so that Stiyl took a step back in recoil. His tone had changed from the saddened mess it had bene previously to a cold, indifferent state that one could almost say a different person entirely had spoke.

But it wasn't, Stiyl could easily tell that it had been Johnson and the revelation send a chill down his spine. The William Johnson he'd known back then would never say anything in that kind of voice and to see it in person… truly horrified him.

The shock quickly however turned back to anger. "So that's it? that's all you have to say to this Will?" The natural born esper gave no reply. "…Fine then, lets see far you fare against a member of the Necessarius branch of the Anglican church! Fortis931- I prove why my name is the strongest here!"

And with that, at the announcement of the magicians magic name, the battle between the two friends began.

* * *

"Damn him! getting himself into a dangerous situation again by himself." The magic god Othinus muttered these words to herself as she glared at her phone. Her male lover William Johnson had just hung up on her after seemingly running into an enemy magician and instead of asking for help from the magic god he'd instead disconnected the line without revealing his location.

"What's wrong witch? Will get tired of talking to you?" the voice that came from beside her came from the young girl dressed in the robes of a nun. The girl was the Index librorum prohibitorum, otherwise known as Index. The nun was currently giving the magic god something akin to a winning smirk as if she'd just one-uped the taller woman.

The magic god just found the smirk slightly annoying.

"No, that… idiot of a man just got himself cornered by one of your 'pursuers'." Othinus inwardly laughed slightly at the sight of the nuns face change from smirking to worrying in a matter of moments.

"Eh! he's challenging a mag-" her words were cut off by Othinus placing- more like slapping- her hand over the shorter girls mouth.

"Hush! do you want to spill the secret of magic to everyone in the city?" the magic gods tone was sharp and held no room for argument.

Index quickly shook her head.

"I thought not." Othinus removed her hand. "And as much as I would love to say otherwise, don't worry about that idiot. It wont be the first time he's handled our kind so he'll be fine." The woman's tone left no room for doubt, she truly believed that the boy could easily defeat his attacker. It wasn't a foolish confidence or an overestimation of his abilities either; she had seen the boys combat abilities and had, once, experienced them first hand in their first meeting.

And that had been two years ago

"…If you say so." Index muttered those words quietly; speaking more to herself than the one beside her.

"I do say so chibi." a smile entered the corner of her mouth at the sight of the young nun glaring at her from the nickname she'd come to give her… what, the girl was calling her witch so she may as well give her a bad nickname too. "Now come on, we're heading to the clothing department so we can get you some new cloths."

"I don't need any new cloths! As a nun proud of her religion it is my sacred duty to always wear my robes." despite the girls words Othinus could easily see that sweat was pouring down her companions face.

"…You're sweating." she said simply.

"Wha- no I'm not!"

"Then why do I see droplets of water flowing down your forehead chibi?" the magic gods mouth held a teasing smile towards the smaller girl.

"I'm not sweating you witch! I'm perfectly-" fate seemed to take that exact moment, as Index was flailing her arms around, to have a girl with straight golden hair with starry eyes, quite literally with stars in her eyes, wearing a Tokiwadai uniform walk right beside the panicking nun so that she could accidentally hit her with them; causing the girl to topple over and onto the small girl.

"…Wow, such bad luck and Ruiko isn't even here."

Meanwhile in a certain high school Satan Ruiko suddenly sneezed, causing the person next to her to jump and drop the bucket he was holding with his telekinesis. QuIte unfortunately the bucket hit an almost conveniently placed board that had a paint can on it which flew after the bucket hit the board.

Needless to say the paint can hit Ruiko; causing her to be coloured blue from head to toe.

"…Such misfortune." could be heard from her as she made her way to the locker rooms to get changed.

Back to Othinus she was currently trying to hold in a small laugh as both the chibi nun and the blond girl found themselves tangled up in each others limbs.

"You alright there chibi?" Not really caring for a reply Othinus instead turned her eye towards the crowd that had gathered. Being within the underground mall within district 7 it was only expected that lots of people gathered to witness the scene that had just played out.

Especially since it was July 20th and most of the students would want to spend a lot of their time with their friends on the first day of the summer.

After several minutes of struggling against each other and getting the assistance of several witnesses the two girls managed to get themselves untangled.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" Once more Othinus had to hold herself back from laughing at the sight of Index bowing and apologising over and over again towards the Tokiwadai student.

"It's fine, its fine; accidents happen." The girl in question was smiling towards the small nun while looking at her in an analytical gaze.

"? Is there something wrong?"

"…Huh? No! no, you simply have the appearance of a friend an acquaintance of mine described to me once." laughing to herself softly the Tokiwadai student turned to leave before setting her eyes towards Othinus.

"Othinus-sensei? I wasn't expecting to see you here." Her smile faltered slightly as she eyed the magic god. It wasn't that it faltered due to her not liking the magic god however; it was due to that the magic god was alone.

Othinus noticed the falter in her smile, silently cursed her male lover for charming almost every girl he met, and gave a small but sincere smile to the Tokiwadai student. "Indeed, I wasn't expecting to see you here either Shokuhou-san; especially without your Clique."

Misaki Shokuhou, nicknamed mental out and the queen of Tokiwadai, was the 5th ranked level 5 in Academy City. Othinus had first met the girl two years ago during her first day teaching at the aforementioned school.

Yes, Othinus, the only known magic god in the world, was a teacher at a middle school within Academy city, the headquarters of the science side. One need only take a quick look to see the irony of one of their strongest enemies teaching their espers. In any case she'd encountered the star eyed girl during her first class and quickly gained her curiosity after resisting her power mental out when she'd attempted to use it after arriving late. Upon speaking to each other about those particular circumstances the Queen of Tokiwadai held a slight animosity towards the magic god until a year ago when she met a certain self proclaimed level 0.

Now the two got along fine with the other and have even gained something that could be considered a friendship of sorts… even though Misaki still doesn't exactly trust the older woman.

She is a person who doesn't trust someone she cant read the mind of after all.

Now though… it was rare for the two to meet up outside the confines of the school and it led the two at a bit of an impasse at the present moment.

"?" oblivious to the magic god and the girl know as mental out Index looked toward the two in confusion. 'Othinus-sensei'? the witch was a teacher? and she was teaching this person? The small nun didn't understand as Othinus had the appearance of a 14 year old.

"Something wrong Chibi?" Index was brought from her thoughts by Othinus giving her a look.

"…You're a teacher?" she asked simply.

"Yes, for the past two years since I arrived in this city. It was part of an… agreement that I made with the city's general superintendent." From the tone the magic god held in her voice it was obvious she didn't wish to speak of that 'human' for any length of time.

"…Well, while it was nice to see you Othinus-sensei i'm afraid I must be off. I have a meeting with a friend to get to." Misaki didn't even wait for a reply and was off through the crowd before either the magic god or the nun could stop her.

"…You teach some weird people Witch." Index finally said after a few moments of silence between the two.

"They're no more weirder then you are chibi." Was Othinus's response.

This time she openly laughed at Index's reaction.

* * *

William Johnson was currently not having a good time. The instant Stiyl had unleashed his magic name the young priest unleashed a torrent a flames that roasted the asphalt on the ground and cutting off any attempt of escaping through the entrance by melting the door shut with his flames. he'd then preceded to summon a flame sword to attack him making him have to leap to the other side of the ground floor to avoid meeting the same fate as the door.

After all a human body will melt before it burns when met with a 3000C° flame sword.

"What's the matter esper, cant take the heat?"

…Did he really just say that?

Johnson shook his head to clear away any unneeded thoughts and took his first real look and their current location. The warehouse held two floors with the ground floor being completely clear of any crates or other types of containers. Johnson had a feeling the second floor would be the same but he couldn't be sure.

The wear and tear on the support beams seemed to indicate that it'd been abandoned for a while, at least a few months but there wasn't anything else of interest. Just a barren ground where it was all open space. That suited Johnson just fine though; it meant he had more room to manoeuvre around his opponent.

Speaking of which…

The flaming haired priest charged, calling forth a pair of flame swords as he went, and swung down hard towards his target.

Johnson merely jumped backwards, hopped off the wall he'd jumped on, landed behind his opponent and drove a hard kick into his back. The kick threw the young priest into the wall, granting Johnson the second he needed to leap back as the flame swords came swinging back around.

Stiyl merely breathed out once before dismissing one of the flame swords to summon a wave of flames instead and throwing it forwards causing Johnson to dodge to the side… where he then had to roll in order to avoid the remaining flame sword in Stiyl's hand. Johnson quickly got to his feet and jumped back to avoid another swing of the sword.

The two boys stared at each other for a moment, ignoring the destruction behind Johnson's back as the flames continued to consumed the entrance way. Johnson breathed out once.

"I guess i'd better get serious if I want to get out of this alive." with that word the battle quickly began anew. Stiyl quickly called forth another flame sword to swing down as Johnson char-

"!" Stiyl found himself against the wall he'd been kicked into a minute earlier and found himself in surprise. Johnson had his foot held up high as if to imitate a kick and was currently standing just where Stiyl himself had been a moment prior; How did he…?

He shook his head, it didn't matter in the end. he quickly got up to his feet, quickly summoning a flame into his hand and moved to thro-

He was on the floor again, this time seeing Johnson holding out his left fist instead of left leg and was standing before him.

"What's the matter Stiyl, can't keep up?" a smirk was hanging off the older boys face and he _moved_ backwards about a metre or two.

So fast, even Stiyl's trained eyes couldn't keep track of his movement.

"C'mon, get up." Johnson commanded. "This won't be any fun if you don't go all out." Johnson was taunting him, aggravating him, in order to get his rage flaring so as to cause him to make mistakes.

Unfortunately for him it didn't work.

"As you wish." With a smirk planted on his face the priest brought a hand into his robes, pulled out laminated cards and hurled them across the various walls and floor. Each card, Johnson quickly noted, held a star-shape pattern contained within a red sphere with an odd symbol drown in the middle.

"Runes…" Johnson breathed out.

Runic magic, a magical language that Germanic people adopted in the second century A.D. Essentially, they were 'words of power' such as 'Kenaz'- or 'Kaunan'-, which would light ablaze like a torch once activated.

Johnson had gained this knowledge from his extensive 'lessons' on magic from Odin which had consisted of her just 'dumping' the knowledge of such things as runes, idol theory and so on until it stuck into his head and while he didn't appreciate the methods employed in the teaching he certainly appreciated the lessons.

After all, that knowledge was about to come in handy.

"One of the five great elements from which the world is constructed. The great flame of the beginning." His runic cards in place the young priest began to chant.

"It is a light of blessing that raises life and a light of judgment that punishes evil. It is overflowing with calm blessings and with freezing misfortune that destroys cold darkness." Power of a creature beyond that of a human could be held in the air; Johnson clenched his left fist and entered a fight position. Leaning down to the ground his feet braced themselves for the time to act.

"Its name is fire and its role is the sword. Be manifested and become the power that eats into my body! Innocentius!" With the chant over an explosion of fire engulfed Johnson's vision. No, it wasn't an explosion; more akin to a roar of flames was picked up instead. The fire that had seemingly exploded within Stiyl's hand quickly extended; forming arms, legs, a torso and a head all made out of flames within seconds.

The creatures name was Innocentius, it's meaning was 'I will surely kill you.'

Johnson felt his muscles tense and sweat pour from his body; this creature, this god of flames, radiated at a heat similar to that of the flame sword only with a higher intensity and a higher killing intent. It was a creature that spelled certain doom to all who crossed it; one that smitted the wicked and protected the weak.

And it was currently aiming all its malicious intent at Johnson.

So again, he was not having a good time.

The creature that promised death and destruction released a second roar, as if to announce the beginning of its hunt, before shooting off at the speed of a bullet to crush its human foe. Against such a monster an ordinary human would be a puddle of melted flesh before it had swung its flaming cross smashed their remains into a non-existent state and that would be that.

Unfortunately for the flame god William Johnson was not an ordinary human.

The instant the monster had left its spot its prey had already fled; moving at a speed superior to even the flame god Johnson had rushed up the steps towards the second floor at most haste. He had no plan on how do deal with such a creature but knew he couldn't fight it head on.

After all, it was a creature that had been born through the magician Stiyl Magnus's runes. Therefore it couldn't simply be destroyed by a mere punch or kick or any other conventional means. With dealing with this creature only two routes to victory were available: destroy all runic cards within the vicinity or defeat the caster.

There was a problem already; for one he had no means to destroy the runic cards as all he had on his person were the cloths on his back and his esper power wouldn't be of use either. Second of all defeating Stiyl was impossible without defeating the Innocentius. It was a damned if you do damned if you don't situation. His only option was a retreat, the creature could only move where the runes had been placed so should he manage to exit the warehouse he was home free. Yes, that was his plan; that was the only plan he could do so-

The image of a certain silver haired nun entered his vision for the briefest of instances. Next to her on her left a younger Johnson stood with a smile, the magician Stiyl Magnus stood on her right with the same smile. All three held happy expressions and showed none of them to have a care in the world as they played in the very park the three of them had become friends in.

Johnson stopped his movements towards the broken window he'd been moving towards; stopping just short of jumping out. He couldn't do it, to do it was the same as running away from the problem. To jump and leave now was to spit in his old friends face and throw away any chance of gaining that friendship back.

And Index… how could he face her if he ran away now? It was ridiculous, he realised. A tactical retreat wouldn't be running away, it'd be giving him a chance to group up with Odin and Ruiko so that they could tackle this problem together but… this wasn't their fight. This wasn't a problem the two of them had to be dragged into. This was between himself, the magician downstairs and the silver haired girl that that befriended the both of them. Even if she couldn't remember, even if her memory could never come back she was still both his and Stiyl's friend.

And so Johnson moved of the window ledge and turned towards the approaching flame god. It had just made it to the top of the stairs and was sending its gaze towards him. Having ran towards the window on the opposite end of the walkway there was a total of ten-fifteen metres between them.

So short, the distance would be covered in a matter of seconds and the flame god would be upon him, swinging the flaming cross held between its hands to disintegrate his body.

Will was ready, he was committed to this line of action. He would not run away, he would not retreat. He would protect the smiles that had been on both the small nuns and young priests faces back then and would protect that small girl from suffering any longer.

And so… the gemstone William Johnson charged, his opponent doing the same. Meeting half-way between the window and the stairs in the spam of a second the empowered god of certain death swung its weapon down upon its prey…

* * *

The magic god Othinus had had enough. Since her earlier talk with her male lover on the phone around an hour ago she had felt the presence of that saint girl tailing both her and the tiny nun beside her. It had been shrouded at first as she hadn't paid it much heed but now it was just getting ridiculous even for her.

The two of them were currently eating inside one of the many restaurants in district 7. Having left the underground mall after purchasing some cloths for the aforementioned nun the pair had left in order to discover where Will had disappeared to. Normally such a thing would be easy as both her and the nun Index could pick up the traces of magic in the air but sadly this time that wasn't the case. It seemed that his battle with the unnamed magician was taking place in another district which meant that they were almost out of luck.

Both this and Index's constant nagging for food and calling her witch for the past hour since she'd come up with the name had all but extinguished the magic god's patience with the smaller girl and so she'd taken her into the first restaurant she could find to make her shut up.

Now here she was, watching a girl with a bottomless pit for a stomach gobble burn plate after plate while burning through all the money she'd earned from the last two months while occasionally glancing at a girl with an extremely odd choice of clothing with a sword watch them both from across the street on a roof.

"Something wrong witch?" oblivious to the magic gods grievances Index asked her a question.

"…Yes, i'm getting annoyed with that nickname-among other things- so i'm going to ask you to stop."

"…But that's your name isn't it?" It was asked with such an innocent voice that most would assume that she actually thought was her name.

Othinus wasn't most people.

"You already know my names Othinus chi-Index," she cut herself off from saying the nickname she'd given the nun. "So would you please call me by it?"

"…" The nun seemed to think really hard about it before… "Sure, though I refuse to believe that's your actual name I guess i'll call you that." she agreed.

Othinus sighed with relief, that was one headache finished. With that the conversation ended, prompting Index to continue her inhaling of the food before her.

She didn't know what caused what happened next, maybe it was seeing the nun before her or just simple nostalgia as she allowed herself to drift into her memories but before she could stop herself the magic god Othinus, the former leader of the organisation GREMLIN, asked in a somewhat dazed voice:

"How did that boy manage to put up with you for all those months?" the instant the words left her lips Othinus felt a part of her shutdown, memories she'd wished to forget blasted their way into the forefront of her mind. Any resistances she had towards the memories fell down without much difficulty and soon all she could see before her was a boy with black spiky hair dressed in the uniform of a certain high school reaching out to her face from his position on the ground until it went lampooned vanished into nothingness.

"Hey Othinus, are you okay?" the magic god was mercifully taken out of her thoughts by Index's voice; something she was thankful for.

"…I'm fine Index, just remembering someone… someone i once knew. Why does it matter though? just get back to eating your food or do you want it to go to waste?" despite the magic gods attempt to take the nuns attention away form her Index simply shook her head and pointed towards Othinus' forehead.

"If you're okay then why are you sweating?" to the smaller girls words Othinus placed her hand onto the top of her head and wiped away the cold liquid from her brow.

"Just the heat." she finally answered. "There isn't any air conditioning in here so the weather's still having an effect on me." before the nun could question any further the magic god took one of the many plates and began eating from its contents, that being rice. "I'm suddenly feeling hungry so I think i'll take this dish if you don't mind."

"…Are you sure you're feeling okay?" Her words froze thematic god in her tracks. They held a tone of such sincerity that she couldn't help but smile at the girl. It seemed even despite her initial attitude towards her she was much like Will in that she cared about the welfare of people she knew, no matter how she regarded them.

Even Othinus herself only really cared about two people in this city and couldn't care less about what happened to anyone else in it.

"…I'm fine Index. As I said it was just a memory and the heat so there's nothing to worry about." That's right, there was nothing to worry about regarding that boy any longer.

After all, that boy, known as Kamijou Touma, no longer existed in the world.

"…" Index looked like she wanted to disagree but seemed to decide against it in the last moment, shrugged her shoulders and went back to eating her food. And so the magic god known as Othinus, the leader of the group GREMLIN, and the Index librorum prohibitorum, one who, in another world, opposed the group GREMLIN, ate in a comfortable silence.

* * *

…Ten minutes later the plates, all two dozen of them, were emptied and taken away by the restaurants employees, each of them giving Index a look bewilderment, awe and, in the case of the females, jealousy as despite having eaten all that food the small nun known as Index still held the same figure as she had when she came in.

The same question covered the minds of everyone, both the staff and other customers: where was all that food going?

The questionable gaze on everyone's faces however was ignored by their receiver however as she simply thanked the staff for the food and walked out with Othinus in tow. Now that food had filled the smaller girls stomach it was time to continue on with finding out where their figure of mutual interest was finding.

In other words it was time to find the gemstone William Johnson.

To do this Othinus had come up with the idea of tracking the signal of his phone. While this wasn't a method they could do by themselves due to that he'd mode his phone so that it was untraceable it was still an electric powered device connected to the network and the network could be hacked into so that a person could find any individual person based on their phone… provided that someone knew that phones unique identification number.

It was fortunate for Othinus that she knew his phones ID but, as a problem, she wasn't a person skilled in the art of hacking or handling a computer in general so that left her with a bit of a predicament. And it wasn't that she could just ask any random hacker either as Will had made it clear he couldn't trust most of the people in that line of business due to various reasons.

That was the case for all but one hacker. There was one that he'd said he'd trusted with that kind of information. Her name, or rather nickname, was Goalkeeper; and she was considered the best hacker in Academy city.

And as for her real name…

"Good morning Uiharu-san." Uiharu Kazari, a first year at Sakugawa Middle School and a member of the 177th branch office of Judgment, a security force comprised of students of varying grades and powers that work alongside Anti-skill, an organisation comprised of teachers, to keep the peace within Academy was a small girl who sports short black hair and has golden-brown eyes. She was currently dressed in her school uniform of a white blouse and blue miniskirt with a headband made of flowers atop her head.

The 177th branch office of Judgment, that was where the magic god known as Othinus and the nun Index were. It had taken them a few minutes to reach there from the restaurant they'd been eating at but considering the circumstances it and been worth the effort.

"Othinus-san? What do you need? It that a nun with you? Did Will-senpai get into trouble again and you need me to find him?" Othinus couldn't help her smile cover ing her face as she watched the middle-schooler list of a series of questions with quick succession. While she wasn't aware as to how the two of them had originally met Othinus herself had been introduced to the girl around a month after she'd moved into the city by the aforementioned boy.

"Yes its me Uiharu, I need you to find Will's phone in the network, yes this is a nun who i'll explain later and yes Will has gotten himself into trouble again." in response to the girls questions Othinus answered them all in order before turning away to let the girl work as well as turn to the other girl in the room.

"Good morning to you as well Konori-san." Konori Mii was a level 3 clairvoyanceuser and current chief of the 177th Judgment branch office. She has short brown hair and dark blue eyes they were covered by a pair of glasses. She was currently dressed in the uniform of her high school that consisted of a white undershirt with a dark blue tank top with a yellow neckerchief along with a short grey-stripped skirt. From what the magic god understood the girl had once been apart of a skill-out group named big spider around two years ago but had quit after its leader was presumed dead.

Skill-out was the name given to the gangs of level 0's that despised their lucky counterparts, the level's 1-5, and acted out as a majority force of the delinquents in the city. And while Othinus herself had never encountered any member of skill-out since her arrival into the city she'd heard various things of them from several acquaintances including both Ruiko and Will with both of their opinions being that they were a childish lot that were slowly digging their own graves.

An assessment that the magic god could agree with considering that she'd heard rumours of a plan to 'purge' the city of them that would take place if things get any worse with them.

In response to Othinus's greetings Konori gave a polite nod before returning to her own work on a laptop.

Found it!" came a cry from Uiharu around half a minute later. Looking at the screen a birds eye picture of district 15 could be seen with a small icon zooming in until it showed a clear picture of what appeared to be an abandoned warehouse… a warehouse that was currently on fire.

"Uiharu! there's been reports of a burning warehouse in district 15- oh, you already know." Before either the nun, magic god or Judgment member could say a words to each other regarding the picture before them their attention was taking by a new voice that had suddenly appeared behind them.

"Shirai-san, you need to get over there right now! Will-senpai is in there!" the person before them was a girl with tawny hair tied into two curly pigtails; the rest of her hair is left to hang as two rows of fringes divided in the middle. Her pigtails are tied in place by a red bow each. The girl was dressed in the uniform of Tokiwadai and could be seen with a green armband with a shield on it- the armband of Judgment.

The girls name was Shirai Kuroko, a first year of Tokiwadai, making her a one year junior to a certain Railgun, and she was a level 4 teleporter as well as another member of the 177th branch office of Judgment.

In response to her juniors words Shirai gave a sigh. "That guys gotten himself in danger again are you saying Uiharu? Geez, he lectures me about not being careful in missions then he gets himself involved in a believed terrorist attack." Despite her laid back tone a hint of worry could be heard in the girls voice. Similar to UIharu Othinus wasn't sure how they'd originally met but from what she could gather the younger girl seemed to hold him in both a high regard and a high grievance.

Othinus guessed that it was likely to do with that while he was a good fighter eh wasn't part of Judgment and therefore could be considered a vigilante… and least that was her guess anyway.

"That boy will be fine," Othinus noted. "If anything i'd be more worried about his opponent." That was true, if it was know she thought it was that he was fighting then it was highly unlikely that he would lose.

"I wasn't expecting to see you here Othinus-sensei, is that a nun with you? did you come here to that could ask where the nearest church is?" If the girl had held any surprise to see the magic god here she didn't show it, she merely gave Index a quick look over before returning her gaze over to the computer monitor.

"Good to see you as well Shirai-san. Yes, this is a nun and she's currently staying with em in my apartment so there's no need to worry about her." the girl merely gave a short nod to her teachers words before putting an earpiece into her ear, strapped two pairs of black straps filled with metal spikes onto her thighs and prepared to teleport out of the office.

"Give me updates on the progress of the situation while I head over there Uiharu. Assuming Anti-skills already been informed as well as an ambulance we probably won't have to do much but considering that Johnson-sanpai seemes to be involved in this I wouldn't hold by breath on it." Othinus had to hold back a chuckle at the girls words. That boy never did do anything on a small scale.

"Do you mind if we company you Shirai-san? This nun, named Index, here is apparently an old friend of Will so she'll probably want to see if he's alright." Athens took her gaze away from the Judgment officer and towards the small nun beside her. "Right?"

Index gave a series of vigorous nods.

"I can't do that Othinus-sensei, I cannot allow civilians to enter potentially dangerous areas."

"She'll be with both you, me and any other law enforcer that has already arrived at the scene." Othinus quickly rebutted. "With all that around she couldn't be safer and besides; can you really say not to that?" she gestured towards the Index's face which had adopted the most dangerous weapon known to man, capable of bringing even the most stone cold of people to their knees and bring the users cuteness level to that of a gods.

Yes, Index's expression was currently locked into the puppy dog eyes.

A visible twitch could be seen coming from the girl's eye. "I…I…" Othinus let out an inward laugh, against such an attack there was no way she'd be able to resist for long.

"Please…?" Index's voice sounded akin to an innocent child seeing something they wanted but couldn't have. It was a tone known by parents everywhere that signified that they couldn't drop the issue until it was addressed and so…

"…Fine! fine! Just- just stop with that look!" the nuns expression instantly transformed into a happy smile.

"Really? Thank you Shirai!" without a word of warning she ran and pulled the girl into a tight hug. The momentum of the run and the sudden grab caused the girl to lose balance and so Kuroko fell to the ground with Index on top of her.

"Th-that's okay um… Index-san but could you please let me go? Please? I won't be able to teleport us all there if you keep holding on to me like that." After several moments of trying to pry the nun from her sides Index eventually released the Judgment girl and walked back next to Othinus.

"Okay then… let's go. Konori-senpai, i'll be heading off now."

The older girl nodded. "I'll be leaving this up to you Shirai-san, I need to finish these reports." Having said her piece the chief of the 177th branch office went back to her work on the laptop in-front of her. Kuroko gave a nod to her seniors words, held both her teacher and the small nun called Index by their shoulders and teleported both her and her two passengers out of the branch office.

* * *

Several jumps later the trio finally arrived at the scene of the crime. The entrance way to the warehouse was completely destroyed and inaccessible with the metalwork having been melted off at a extremely high temperature with the remnants blocking the doorway causing the already arrived Anti-skill officers to cut there way through the side of the building in order to gain access. At the doorway itself a branch of the cities fire department was already working on reducing the strength of the flames.

Wasting no time at all the trio walked up to the nearest Anti-skills officer, a tall woman that has glamorous proportions with her long hair tied into a pony tail. She had dark blue eyes with similar colouring in her hair and was dressed in the typical armour of an anti-skill officer.

The woman seemed to notice their approach as she turned her head away from the warehouse and towards the coming trio.

'I'm Shirai Kuroko from the 177th branch office of Judgment; what is the situation?" No bother with any small talk the middle-schooler immediately gestured towards the partially destroyed warehouse behind them.

"Yomikawa Aiho of the 73rd branch of Anti-skill." The now identified Yomikawa returned. "We don't know, around twenty minutes ago we got a call saying that could see smoke coming off from the warehouse here and we only arrived around five minutes ago ourselves." Yomikawa's voice struck as a highly professional tone that held no humour and her eyes held within them a grim look.

"I see… have you found any evidence of an explosive or any other such equipment from inside?"

"No, as one would expect from an abandoned place like this it was completely bare with no evidence of it being used by anyone in the last few months." the anti-skill woman reported. "The only thing we can guess is that the damage was caused by an esper with a pyrokinesis during a fight with either another esper or group of delinquents, possibly members of skill-out, but we haven't found anyone ye-"

"Captain!" Yomikawa's words were interrupted by another officer running from where an ambulance was stationed. "We've found someone, a guy with dyed red hair in some kind of priest robes."

"Priest robes?" Yomikawa's tone held disbelief.

"Yes ma'am, come see for yourself." Yomikawa nodded and followed the other officer towards the ambulance; the trio of newly arrivals followed suit.

As they reached the ambulance van several staff were bringing in, as the officer had reported ,a boy, appearing around 14 years old, with red dyed hair in the robes of a priest. His robes had several burn marks but his face seemed perfectly fine except for some evidence that it had been hit by what seemed to be a fist.

"Where will you be taking him?" Yomikawa asked one of the paramedics.

"We'll be taking him to Heaven cancellers hospital to get him checked up." The paramedic answered.

"Was this guy the only person in there?"

"Yes ma'am, though he did find this note on him." The officer handed Yomikawa a half burned piece of paper.

"Let's see…" Yomikawa began to read the note aloud.

 _"To whoever's reading this I have to ask you to take the person this note is with to heaven cancellers in order rot make sure I didn't hurt the guy to bad. The tow of us got into a bit of a fight, as you can no doubt tell from the state of the warehouse, and I had to hit him pretty hard to knock him out._

 _If you're wondering on how the warehouse got into such a state well… while we were fighting a level 4 pyrokinesis user interrupted us and attacked us both. We were able to overwhelm him after a bit of a scuffle but the result of the fight ended up ruining the warehouse as a result and blocked our way out._

 _As for what happened to the esper after he seemed to realise he couldn't beat us he jumped out the window on the second floor and escaped. I wouldn't bother looking for him though as he's probably long gone by the time you read this message._

 _And as for myself, well… I couldn't really be bothered to deal with dealing with you all so i'll just mention code 666 and hopefully someone among you will realise what that means. Anyway, please take care of that guy for me as I really didn't want to have to hurt him but circumstances left me with little choice._

 _Keep up the good work Anti-skill and any Judgment members potentially reading this as well._

 _Sincerely, W,J_

 _p.s. if the one reading this is you Yomikawa then i'm sorry you have to clean up one of my messes again… i'll be counting on you for next time ;)_

"…" silence shrouded the small group as Yomikawa finished the note and gave it back to the officer.

"Captain…?"

"*sigh*… You heard the code, get this guy to the hospital and move out. We can't do anything else in this situation." the officer heard the annoyance in his superiors tone and wisely chose to simply follow it.

"Yes ma'am! You heard her, we're pulling out!" in response to the officers words all anti-skill members ceased their work and proceed away from the warehouse.

After a few minutes the only one's left in the area was Yomikawa, Kuroko, Othinus, Index and the remaining members of the fire department still trying to put out the flames. "Code 666 huh, that kid was involved again huh?"

"Captain Yomikawa, what exactly i code 666?" unlike the anti-skill officers the Judgment member had never heard such a code before.

"…Code 666 was a new command issued two years ago." Yomikawa explained. "It's essentially an order to wipe the incident off the record and to leave any person included in the operation to the appropriate official; a part of a law enforcement group named UNITY or something but there's no record of such an organisation anywhere in the database so theres only speculation in its existence."

"…" Without a word Kuroko silently allowed Uiharu to make her own search of this UNITY, the girl wasn't the best hacker in the city for nothing after all.

"Hey Othinus, wheres Will, that girl with the weird headband said he was supposed to be here." The silence that had come over the group was broken by the worried voice of Index, who was currently looking over the whole area frantically for signs of the boy.

"You guys don't use your eyes that well do you?" A voice followed by a sudden crash came from behind them. Turning back in surprise the group came face to face with William Johnson.

The boy was giving them a small smile and seemed to be uninjured despite the cindered and burned state of his uniform and the 1st degree burn marks on his hands.

Will!" Index, not wasting a moment, charged towards the smiling teen and checked him over in rapid succession. "Are you okay!? Are you hurt!? Do you feel any pain at all!? Why did you fight that guy by yourself!?" as her words left her voice the small nun waved her arms around in a panic until they were gripped by Johnson's arms.

"Index, Index, calm down! I'm fine, just a burn or two on my hands; my uniform took the most damage." as if to show his point he gestured to his burnt attire and then to his hands.

"…Are you sure?"

"Yes Index, i'd never lie about such a thing to you." Johnson then preceded to pat the small girls head, something that seemed to give the girl a degree of relaxation and calmness as she seemed to lean into his hand; a somewhat goofy smile could be seen on her face during this.

After about ten seconds Johnson removed his hand and moved towards the rest of the group; ignoring both Yomikawa and Kuroko along the way he ended his tracks in front at the frowning magic god before him.

"Are you mad?" He asked simply.

"What do you think?" Was the magic gods reply.

"I can take care of myself, you know that."

"Doesn't stop me from worrying."

"You? worried? Hell must've frozen over if that's the case." His words that held a teasing tone landed him a fist in the face.

"Don't push me."

"Yes yes Odin-sama, i'll be more careful next time."

"See that you do."

The pair of them seemed to be ignoring the rest of the group during their conversation and so didn't see the reactions of the rest of the group. Yomikawa was looking at the pair with a slight smirk; she knew of the relationship between the two and seeing them together always made her laugh. Kuroko looked at the pair in confusion, she had been unaware that the two knew each other nor that they seemed to be extremely close. As a teacher Othinus had always never taken any jokes or lack of focus in her lessons kindly; making her akin to her dorm mother in terms of people she never wanted to anger or annoy. It had been clear to her that she was mad at the boy for getting himself in danger but wasn't acting like she usually did towards the subject of her ire.

If anything she was acting as if it couldn't be helped and was more mad that he'd gotten injured instead of getting involved in the danger itself.

And as for Index… as she watched the two interact she felt the same pain in her chest as she had earlier in the restaurant when the four of them had been together.

"…Johnson-senpai, could explain to us what happened here?" The conversation between the gemstone and the magic god was interrupted by the voice of Kuroko, who had adopted an irritated expression after hearing that even Uiharu hadn't been able to find anything on this group called UNITY except for rumours and speculations.

Johnson and Othinus shared a look before both turned toward the annoyed girl.

"Sorry, can't tell you anything Shirai; code 666 is in affect and so even if I did tell you anything you wouldn't be able to do anything." His voice held neither a teasing nor mocking tone when speaking to the girl. Why would it? he respected the girl for her abilities- after all her abilities forced her to work on calculations involving the 11th dimension as well as the 3rd like most powers worked on- and would happily fight beside if he had to but in regards to what she wanted to know he couldn't tell her despite that respect.

It wasn't due to being a member of Judgment- though that was a point against her in this case- but that she wasn't a person that could be associated with both the worlds of the darkness and magic.

In other words it was because she was a normal member of Academy City.

"…' in response to Johnson's words Kuroko gave him a harsh glare before looking away annoyed. "Geez, I ended wasting my time here when I could have been with Onee-sama…" At the mention of Misaka Mikoto, Kuroko's beloved Onee-sama, Johnson flinched somewhat.

"…You go do that Shirai, take care of that stubborn little sister of mine or me okay?"

Kuroko didn't seem to notice either Johnson's flinch or drop in his tone. "Of course! Leave it to me." With that the teleporter was gone in the blink of an eye.

Yomikawa merely gave Johnson a quick nod, one that was returned as well as a smile, before she too walked out of the area and back to her patrol of the district; something that caused Johnson confusion as her unit was actually stationed at district 7 instead of 15 but on the end he just dismissed it as an odd coincidence and left it at that.

"Well… that just happened so what happens now?" His question was directed in the direction of the magic god.

"You tell us what happened obviously." Her tone gave the impression of her saying 'are you an idiot' for asking such a question.

"Right… better do that in a better location then this." With that the trio left the fire department to their work and exited the area.

* * *

As the three made their way out of the district towards their apartment in district 7 their movement was watched by a single individual.

Atop the rooftops of one of the various buildings the saint Kanzaki Kaori watched the trio with a mixture of caution and intrigue. Caution due to that the boy had supposedly defeated her partner with only minor injuries and intrigue due to the same reason. Stiyl, despite his young age of 14, was a boy that had mastered the use of all 24 runes of the Germanic alphabet as well as created a new power using six of the 24 characters.

Someone that had managed to do such a thing wasn't a person that could normally be beaten with what appeared to be 1st degree burns on their hands. To begin with the fact that eh had burn marks on his hands indicated that he met Stiyl's flames head on.

Such a thing shouldn't have been possible. To begin with Stiyl's magic created a flame at the heat of 3000C°. At such a temperature the human body would melt before it burned; as was the case with the door to the warehouse the two had battled in.

And yet the boy had not only won against such a flame but had only obtained the weakest of burns as a result.

She was aware that the boy was undoubtedly an esper, having manifested his power within the halls of the St Georges cathedral 4 and a half years ago making him what was called a gemstone but she had not been a part of the Anglican church at that time and as such had not seen just what the boy's power was and Stiyl hadn't told her anything about it either.

But that mattered very little to the saint, as she was a person that had been born with their bodies similar to that of the son of god she possessed a superhuman level of strength, endurance and magical power. She was capable of breaking the sound barrier at her top speed and could fight an army of regular humans by herself.

Their was a reason a saint was considered the equivalent to a magical nuke after all.

Against such a monster what could a boy that possessed an ordinary body of a human do?

With that thought in mind the saint Kanzaki Kaori silently watched the trio as they entered the area in which Stiyl had set up an opila rune earlier. The rune was designed to create an empty space and had been set up around their apartment at a two kilometre radius. In such an area there was little chance of any witnesses walking into their battle or even discovering it unlike the battle that had taken place within the warehouse.

The three of them seemed to notice the mana leaking form the rune radius as they seemed to all become on guard.

Perfect.

Nodding to herself the saint Kanzaki Kaori got up to her legs to mov-

"Good morning!" An unfamiliar voice spoke up from behind, surprising her- her, a saint!- as even she hadn't heard a single voice around her.

Her guard up the 18 year old girl found herself face to face with a boy with unusual white hair and red eyes dressed in a stripped black and white top and brown trousers. The boy was giving her a smirk that sent a chill down her spine; it was a grin filled with bloodlust that screamed 'i'm going to kill you!'.

"You know, I don't really care why you've entered Academy City and for you want to do now that you have but…" an aura of power surrounded the boy as he entered a battle stance. "If it involves that guy then I think i'll just eliminate you here." With that the boy that had been named Vector, known to the whole city as the number 1 esper Accelerator, charged at full speed, manipulating the vectors of the air around him to give him a boost, towards his opponent; the saint Kanzaki Kaori.

With that the battle between the two monsters of their respective sides began.

* * *

"That takes care of the runic field." Index said as the final point of the opila runes was deactivated and the field itself removed from the area around the apartment complex. The field, undoubtedly set up by the magician Stiyl Magnus at an earlier time, had been detected by the trio as they reached a start of a 2 kilometre radius of the aforementioned complex.

It had taken some time, around ten minutes with the nun's extensive feel for the mana radiating in the air but now, with the final runic card taken down the field had been at last removed from the area. By some coincidence or just sheer luck the final card had been in the complex itself and so the trio had immediately been able to enter the apartment and allow Johnson to get changed out of his burnt uniform.

Now he was dressed in a simple white t-shirt and blue jeans instead of another set of his uniform.

"Now that we're in the safety of the apartment do you think you enlighten us on what happened in that warehouse." The order, for it was not a question as the target wasn't going to be given an option of telling them or not, was given by Othinus who was currently gazing at the young gemstone with a gaze that gave no room for argument.

Johnson, who was sitting on he sofa next to Index who was leaning on his shoulder, gave the magic god a simple nod before he began describing his initial talk with the magician Stiyl Magnus as well as his initial battle with the magician of fire. He spoke of what little knowledge he'd gained of Index's 'condition' as well as his own doubts on them.

"Hmm… I suppose the church could have placed a 'collar' on her that was set to activate at the yearly intervals that could only stop once the ritual was finished and her memories were erased." Was the magic gods conclusion after a few minutes of silent pondering.

"Yeah, that was my conclusion too. They probably set it up so that they could rein Index in in the, unlikely, event that she betrayed the church." Johnson added. It was an understandable thing, they'd created a library that contained the original contents of over 100,000 grimoires in a single place; that being Index's head. With that in mind it only made sense that they'd have something to ensure that they'd have something to ensure her loyalties remained with them.

Johnson could understand it… but that didn't mean he could forgive it. While he had shown a calm expression throughout the battle with Stiyl, during the meeting with Shirai and Yomikawa earlier and during the explanation inside a burning rage was sitting in his heart. How dare they do this to her! How dare they, after forcing her to read those poisonous grimoires in the first place, place something on her that killed her should her memories not be erased every year!

It disgusted him, it made him want to head back to England and demand an explanation from that Archbishop Laura and his parents as well.

His parents… they knew, they had to have known what they were planning to do to Index and hadn't done anything to help her. They just let the church do whatever they wanted with such an innocent girl that could never willingly hurt a fly.

All and all they had a lot to answer for.

"Will, are you okay?" the worried voice of Index brought Johnson back to reality. She was gripping not his left hand tightly and looking at him with a gaze filled with worry.

"I'm… fine Index. I- I'm just angry that the church would do this to you. Not only did they force you to read those poisonous books but they then took it one step further by taking your memories." Johnson let out a loud sigh before letting out a smile and patting the girls head again.

"How about, before you go off on an emotional tangent again, you tell us how the fight ended?" The ignored magic gave out a small huff before speaking up, drawing Johnson's attention away from the girl beside him.

"Yeah yeah, you're really impatient today Odin; is your period today or something?" His joke earned him another punch and a blank look. "Alright alright; this is what happened…"

* * *

An hour ago: district 15: warehouse

 _Meeting half-way between the window and the stairs in the spam of a second the empowered god of certain death swung its weapon down upon its prey…_

 _Only for its prey to strike first._

 _Before the creature of destruction could bring down its weapon Johnson swung his fist forward. It was suicide, against a monster made of 3000C° a human fist would become a puddle of molten remains long before it could do any damage._

 _But even so, the fist landed its blow and in turn the creatures body was blown away with the force of the hit. Its form scattered in the wind and the creature disappeared from existence._

 _Just to be clear this wasn't the work of any magic nor was the sound of breaking glass heard which signalled the activation of imagine breaker. This wasn't the strength of his esper power either as it didn't work in his fist though it had contributed in the blow at a small extent._

 _In other words the god of flames called the Innocentius had been defeated by a simple strike from Johnson's fist._

 _Had this been any other opponent this would be the cause of celebration as it was an opponent that was easily the stronger out of the two combatants but Johnson instead jumped forward, desperately moving to escape his current location._

 _Why? because in the next moment the space he had been occupying was by a familiar flaming cross._

 _It was the Innocentius. The god of flames that had been destroyed a moment ago had reappeared behind its prey and had moved to destroy it when it should have been vulnerable._

 _Unfortunately for the flame god its opponent already knew what to expect from it. Johnson had already known that conventional means of beating it wouldn't work as such that was why his original plan had been to retreat._

 _Now though all he could do was keep it at bay while slowly getting closer to Stiyl little by little._

 _The flame god roared towards Johnson and charged again, rising tis cross to deliver a quick dea-_

 _Johnson swung_ something _from his fingertips of his left hand towards the approaching monster that sliced through its cross little no effort and then continued to slice through the creature itself causing it to fall apart any vanish from existence once again._

 _Johnson released an annoyed sigh at the use of his power and looked towards the blades that had sprouted out of his fingers. The blades were blood red that reached up to 5 metres outwards though Johnson could force them to extend easily. They were extremely thin, less an a metre in diameter but, similar to the length, Johnson could have become wider if eh so wished._

 _The reason why the blades were blood red was simple._

 _It was because the blades were made out of Johnson's blood._

 _This was the power of the gemstone William Johnson; it was the answer to an extremely odd question._

 _That question being 'What could a human do if they possessed complete, absolute, control over their own blood?'_

 _As already stated it was a question that made no sense and was something no one in history that ever asked. Never the less his power was the answer to that question._

 _The act of making his blood into solid blades was merely just one of the things he could do with his power but was undoubtedly one of the easier applications as well as the least dangerous with no backlashes. To accomplish this he merely had to will some of his blood at the tips of his fingers to become solid and they followed his instructions._

 _Another trick he could do with his power was cause his blood flow to speed up resulting in the rest of his to compensate for the speed of the incoming extra blood by working at an accelerated rate. This allowed him to move at an accelerated speed that surpassed the human eye. This when combined with his enhanced speed of his unnatural body made it impossible to be seen any anything when he moved at his full speed._

 _It was this particular use of his power that allowed him to deliver his earlier blows to Stiyl without relying on his unnatural speed from his body._

 _At any rate, taking the few moments he had available Johnson quickly made his way down the stairs he'd made his way up just a few minutes prior._

 _After jumping the last few steps Johnson came face to face with Stiyl once again._

 _"Humph, so you can temporarily deal with innocentius with your power huh? That still looks as unnatural as it did back then when you first did it."_

 _The incident he was referring too had been when Johnson had first awoken his power four and a half years ago in a surge of emotion after being attacked by a strange group of people in the park they'd usually played at._

 _It was only two years later that Johnson had discovered that the people had been hired by an individual magic cable in order to use the three of them was leverage against the church… not that they'd succeeded due to Johnson using his power for the first time to quickly beat them._

 _In response to the magicians words Johnson merely shrugged, he didn't particularly care if his power was seen as unnatural as long as it was useful. Not bothering to say any other words Johnson sprang from his position towards his old friend._

 _Unseen to the magician Johnson's heart began to pump twice as fast, causing his blood flow to move at twice its ordinary speed and allowing Johnson to move faster then Stiyl's eyes could see allowing his fist to come an inch away from his opponents face when-_

 _"!" Johnson stopped his assault no Stiyl and instead moved to the side; allowing him to barely dodge a familiar looking cross._

 _Innocentius had appeared once again._

 _Johnson clicked his teeth in annoyance and moved to towards the monster in order to slice it apart once again…_

 _Only to have to dodge to the side again in order to avoid a flame sword swung towards him. It was in that instant Johnson realised he rally should have just escaped through the window._

 _Johnson focused his will towards his unarmed right arm and in the next instant a series of blades similar to that on his left hand sprouted from the fingertips and stood in a similar state to their left counterparts. Within the next moment Johnson flew through the air at the top speed his power could do without forcing to overtax itself by making it move even faster. Within moments his left hand sliced through then flame sword generated by Stiyl while the ones on his right cleaved through Innocentius._

 _Had Johnson looked towards Stiyl at that moment he would have seen terror written on his face. Johnson had not once been injured over the course of the battle and seemed to be holding himself back from simply ending him._

 _To reiterate, Johnson could force his blades to grow to incredible lengths so the magicians fears were well justified._

 _To make it clear, in simple terms, Johnson could have easily just made his blades grow to such lengths that it could have impaled Stiyl's heart from standing at the top of the warehouse that he had been standing at a minute earlier._

 _In other words he was holding back a lot and didn't seem to want to kill him._

 _But it wasn't that that caused the fear he current felt. No, the fear came from the image he was currently seeing before him. There in front of him stood Johnson and his blades made of blood surrounded by the flames Stiyl had caused to the door way as the remains of Innocentius faded out of existence. His figure gave off an impression of power and awe, similar to that of a mighty her slaying a ferocious and/or demonic beast._

 _But the truth however was that a he'd destroyed the creature known as the the 'King of Witch Hunters' in one swing of his hands._

 _That was why he felt fear._

 _"I think its time we end this." Stiyl's brain only just barely caught up with the older boys words before he appeared an inch away from him; his left fist covered in the blood that had an instant ago been five thin blades shaped into a single thick point._

 _This was it, he was going to die. The irrational part of his mind took over as he gazed at the bo- no, as he gazed at_ monster in human skin _before him and fear gripped the magicians entire being._

 _He would die._

 _There was nothing he could do to save himself from dying._

 _Now, as the fist drew closer inch by inch, the boy known as Stiyl Magnus accepted that he would be no more; killed by one of his oldest friends. In the inmost reaches of his mind the boy silently admitted to himself that this was only right._

 _After all, he'd failed to protect Index just as much as the boy before him._

 _No, he'd failed even more so then Will had as he'd been there with her the whole time. While his friend had been in Academy Stiyl had been the one that accompanied Index as she was made to read the grimoires._

 _At any time he could have said no._

 _At any time he could have tried to save her from her cruel fate._

 _At any time he could have just ran off with her to escape the church and flee to Academy City where their only other friend awaited them._

 _But he never did. At the end of it all he simply did what the church wanted him to do and now Index was the one to pay the price._

 _So this conclusion was fine; as he looked back on things Stiyl realised he'd failed Will just as much as he'd failed Index. After all, the last thing the older boy had said to him was to protect the girl he saw as a younger sibling and he hadn't been able to do that._

 _Therefore he supposed what was to happen next was his punishment for his failure. And if so…_

 _Then he'd accept it._

 _And so, with that conviction, the magician Stiyl Magnus gave a soft smile and accepted his fate…_

 _"…You don't need to worry anymore Stiyl," He heard Will speak softly. "When you wake up tomorrow, everything will be over… and Index will be safe."_

 _Those words, those insignificant words pierced through Stiyl's core._

 _What? What did he mean wake up? He was going to die now so…_

 _"!" It was then he looked a the incoming fist again, only this time, instead of a blade, a bare fist was seen._

 _At that moment Stiyl Magnus realised the meaning of his words._

 _'Don't worry about thing anymore, because I'm going to save her."_

 _It was an impossible statement, no matter what both he and his partner Kanzzaki Kaori had tried they hadn't been able to find a way to help her but… Will said those words with such conviction, such confidence… that he could only believe._

 _"If you say…" He answered back. "Then i'll leave it to you… Will."_

 _And so the last thing Stiyl Magnus saw before his vision blackened, the last thing he saw before his friends fist met its mark, was the same smile he'd been given by the boy when they first met._

 _BANG!_

 _And with that, the magician Stiyl Magnus fell to the ground, his face holding a calm, relaxed smile._

 _Johnson released a single calm breath as he gazed at his old friend. It seemed he'd made the right choice in choosing to stay after all._

 _But he wasn't done yet._

 _Despite the fact that its caster had been knocked unconscious and had stopped giving at his mana the creature Innocentius stood to attack once again where he had previous struck it down._

 _When it thought of it logically it made sense, just because the caster had stopped giving mana didn't mean that it didn't still have the mana its caster had already given it but in the end it didn't really mattered. Its form was already falling apart from the lost connection to its caster._

 _All that was left was to strike the finishing blow._

 _"Just die." Johnson uttered coldly as he launched himself at the creature for a final time._

 _"!" The monster roared and swung its cross and the same instant Johnson swung his right hand._

 _The right hand won and cleaved the creature in half._

 _The next thing Johnson knew he was thrown back by the force of the fiery explosion released by its ultimate destruction._

 _The battle had been won… at the cost of the entire warehouse falling apart._

 _Speaking of which…_

 _""Damnit! Such misfortune!" was William Johnson's words as the roof caved in on them._

* * *

Present time

"…That's pretty much it." Johnson as he sighed out after finishing the rest of the story.

In response Othinus was looking at him with a mixture of boredom and impatience while Index was looking at him in awe and joy. An expected reaction from the two Johnson concluded. Othinus was a magic god and had probably been involved in better fights than that and as for Index, who wasn't a fighter but probably knew how strong Stiyl was, was clearly impressed that he'd been able to beat him.

"…So you ended up using your power? You know you'er forbidden from using it Will." Was the magic gods ultimate assessment.

"Wow! So you really beat that magician that easily!? Amazing!" Index gave off an awed assessment, a clear contrast between the two answers.

Johnson merely shrugged at their responses, so what if he'd used his powers to win? If he hadn't things could have ended far worst and besides Stiyl had already known about it so it was no loss that he'd used it there.

"Whatever the case, we should probably start looking for that 'collar' you mentioned earlier so Ruiko can destroy it when she gets back." To Johnson's words a pairs of nods were given.

Several minutes later after looking from head to toe the pari finally discovered a symbol similar to that you'd find on a horoscope hidden at the back of her throat… needless to say the discovery had been followed by an awkward silence.

Whatever the case though they'd found the 'collar' that had been causing Index the pain Stiyl had mentioned.

All that was left now was to wait for Ruiko to come back from her remedial class and they could fix this problem once and for all.

* * *

 **Whew, finally done! That was the longest thing i've ever written period so i'm quite happy with myself with this.**

 **I hope this turned out well with everyone and i'll be looking forward to your feedback.**

 **Just a chapter or possibly two more until the Index arc is wrapped up and we can get until some more interesting stuff.**

 **For anyone wondering i've already got some plans for arcs up to the Academy City invasion arc and things will have definitely taken a massive turn from canon at that point.**

 **Also I hope the fight scenes were okay, they're honestly not my strong points so I hope its at least okay.**

 **In any case I hope you've enjoyed this chapter, send any input you can to improve this chapter if you see anything that needs changing and i'll see you next time.**


	4. Chapter 3

**Hello everyone and welcome back.**

 **Pseudonym: Happy to hear you liked the interactions between those two and I hope you won't be disappointed with the results of the fight between those two.**

 **Regarding what you said about Laura I wouldn't be surprised if that was the case and with Index you're probably right. Between you and me… what am I saying every fan of the series will probably agree with me when I say that I didn't like how Index was done after the first novel with how she became a background character. I'm going to try- I repeat, TRY- to make her more crucial to the plot… there is a reason she's in the tags after all.**

 **With Othinus… I made her a teacher due to a line from Thor in NT volume 10 when he said that she likes explaining things… also because I just think she'd be a great teacher if she actually tried at it. With regards to the 'human' from the windowless building i'll simply say that while he has a theory why she's in the city its nothing but speculation on his part.**

 **Silverflashes: Happy that you liked the chapter and I hope you'll like this chapter as well.**

 **Jam-Man265- I've already PM'd you about your comment.**

 **Now then, i'll take no time from you any longer so on with the story!**

* * *

Chapter 3: Battle against a saint

It was late into the evening when Ruiko finally returned; dressed not in the outfit she'd been wearing earlier but in her own school uniform with a bag in her arms that held her other cloths painted wholly with the colour blue… a clear showing of the luck the imagine breaker gave her.

After putting the bag in an out of the way place on the kitchen counter Johnson, Othinus, Ruiko and Index began to discuss where they'd destroy the 'collar' that the church had put on small nuns neck.

"The church will have set up a countermeasure for the off chance someone managed to destroy it, meaning that doing it in a somewhat open place will be our best bet." had been Johnson's reasoning for suggesting they do the deed out of the apartment. The apartment itself cost them quite a bit of their funds despite a portion of it- a rather small part admittedly- being paid for by the city itself… or rather the 'human' that ruled it behind the confines of the windowless building set up in district 7.

This meant that, when they destroyed the 'collar' they were prepared to have to fight whatever was released and they'd rather not have their residence destroyed in the process.

A quick series of nods were given to his only males reasoning so that left the only issue left being just where they'd do it. District 7 didn't have any real place where they could perform any such battles without doing it out in the open streets for anyone still wondering around to see so their home district was out.

District 10 was a possibility, it being a district that had pretty much been abandoned due to poor public order leaving the place a haven for skill-out groups as no real patrols were made there anymore. The reason for this was that the city just didn't care for the district anymore as there was no real important place their since the destruction of the special ability institute where the research of the mythical dual skill had been researched.

Thankfully that facility was no longer functioning since a squad led by Yomikawa had dismantled the place some years ago.

Johnson had only heard of the place from Vector but from what little he'd heard from his friend he was thankful it had been shutdown due to the experiments that had taken place there; particularly after hearing of what child errors, essentially orphans dumped in the city, had been put through and used for.

Still though, now that it was empty and unused he could be the perfect place fro where they could destroy the 'collar'. Johnson quickly brought up the place and had instantly been given a nod by both the wielder of Imagine breaker and the magic god.

Both had heard the same things Johnson had from Vector and were more than happy to cause some destruction to the place.

With the two having given their consent Index gave hers as well despite not knowing why Ruiko and Othinus were so happy to destroy a research facility, abandoned as it was.

"Then i'll make a call to 'that guy' and see if he can give us access to the place." At the mention of 'that guy' both girls gave a stiff nod. It was obvious to anyone who knew what they were talking about that neither really envied Johnson for what he was about to do.

Index just gave a confused expression. "What's Will talking about? What guy?"

It was Othinus who answered. "'That guy' refers to the General Superintendent of the city; a 'human' by the of Aleister Crowley." The magic gods tone was filled with venom, as if to curse the individuals name.

"Aleister… Crowley…? Where have I heard that name before…?" Index scratched her head as she tried to access the knowledge from the over 100,000 grimoires in her head. She was certain she'd heard the name Aleister Crowley before but wasn't sure where.

Johnson merely ignored the trio of girls conversation and typed in the number 666 into his phone before pressing the call button. Had anyone seen him type that it they would have looked at him oddly, no cell number was that short and why 666, also known as the number of the devil?

Those people would have been even more surprised when the call went through and voice that sounded both male and female came through the receiver.

"To what do I owe the pleasure of your call William Johnson?" Johnson waved away any annoyance he had with the 'humans' mocking tone and answered despite knowing the 'human' on the other end of the line probably already knew.

"I need access to the special ability institute to perform an… 'operation' for a dear old friend of mine; do you mind if you could ensure we don't get any interruptions during the process?" Johnson gave his answer in a somewhat polite tone but behind it held the same venom that had been present in Othinus's earlier. Neither gemstone or magic god were fond of the 'human' known as Aliester Crowley due to one reason or another.

Johnson because the 'human' used both his friends at his school and other members of UNITY as leverage to 'keep him in line' and have him follow the 'humans' orders less any of them suffer from an… 'accident' as it were.

Hell Othinus herself could be considered leverage over him as it was Aliester that had gotten her her job at Tokiwadai and who allowed her to remain in the city.

All and all his entire life since entering Academy City was being used as leverage against him to do as the 'human' pleased though admittedly he hadn't been asked to do much as of the two years he'd come to know of his existence.

Only things such as dealing with whenever a magician invaded the city and the occasional 'dirty job' in the cities dark side.

As for Othinus… Johnson didn't really know why she hated Aliester, only that she did on principle and had refused to tell him.

Back to the conversation though in response to his question the 'human' on the other end merely gave an almost silent 'hmm' as if to play with the gemstones patience.

"I wonder, why should I give you access to that old facility? What could you possibly need from there that, for example, heaven canceller's hospital does not?"

Yep, he was definitely playing with Johnson here.

"You know perfectly well why I want to go there, seeing as you're probably watching what's going on in the apartment right now."

This was true, as previously stated Aliester played a small part in the financing of the apartment… which left the opportunity for him to have his worker set up surveillance camera's all over the place. As of now Johnson had found at least a dozen cameras and had shut them all off.

And what bizarre places some of them had been in, one had been installed in the toilet- not the bathroom wall or the ceiling- the fucking toilet of all places!

"…True, such an action would cause severe damage to wherever you decided to carry out your little eradication of the Anglican Churches 'collar' and I would rather not have an investment that was still being used destroyed due to an awakening of that girls 103,000 magic tomes." The way the 'human' spoke it was clear to Johnson that he was aware of what would happen when the 'collar' was destroyed. "Very well, I shall make arrangements for that old research centre to be clear of any skill-out groups that may have set up base there."

"That is all I ask of you."  
"As it should be, have a pleasant evening Johnson." With that the call was cut.

"Well?" asked Othinus having been paying attention to the conversation between the 'human' and gemstone.

Johnson gave her a nod. "He agreed to allow us use of the facility, said he didn't want to lose his 'investment' in the apartment." he then preceded to sit back down on the sofa next to the still thinking Index. "All that's left now is to head over to district 10 when we're given the all clear by 'that guy' and get this over with."

If Johnson was being truthful he wanted to just destroy it now and be done with it but charging ahead without a plan was never a good idea; his early attempts with dealing with the cities 'dark side' attested to that. In order to deal with a problem effectively one had to, at the very least, prepare for the unexpected and being along a series of back-ups should the original expectation fail.

He hadn't done that two years ago and he'd ended up almost losing his head to the ability of the cities number 4 level 5 Mugino Shizuri, also known as meltdown when he'd ended up running into her little group while chasing a magician that had invaded the city. While he didn't hold a grudge against the woman- she'd just been doing her job after all- she hadn't taken the fight that had broken out between them happily as he'd managed to beat her through a timely intervention of the aforementioned magician using his magic on the both of them.

After all, while his power came naturally to him and so didn't need to run calculations with the most basic of uses Meltdowners required extreme concentration and precise calculations to pull hers off without incident.

Being afflicted with a spell infused with the sin of sloth, as one would expect, had caused her ability to focus to wane as she fought the drowsiness the spell gave her and ended up slicing her arm off as a consequence; allowing Johnson to quickly knock her own and win the fight.

As already stated she didn't take that happily… though simply saying that had been an understatement.

She had been _furious_ , in her eyes she'd lost to someone who was both weaker than her and below her for she was the number 4 level 5 and Johnson was only the number 6 and on top of that had been an ordinary boy up until that particular incident.

Yes, Johnson was the illusive number 6 level 5 that no one knew about. As he never revealed his power to anyone people usually thought he was just a strong level 0 with only a few select people actually knowing of his power.

Misaka Mikoto being one of them.

After the incident involving that magician that used magic based the one of the 7 sins Johnson had been forced by that 'human' that hid in the windowless buildings to pretend he'd lost his ability in order to truly trick the city into believing that he actually was just a level 0.

Johnson wouldn't have truly minded that in-and-of-itself if it was just had been that but it also meant he couldn't use it against people that were involved in the cities 'dark side' in order to keep the illusion.

He'd even been forced out of all lessons that involved the power curriculum program so that people didn't discover his ability still existed.

All and all he'd been forced to change the way he lived his life according to that 'humans' desire and to be used as a disposable pawn for whenever a magician entered the city.

That had been the agreement between the gemstone William Johnson and the 'human' Aliester Crowley. In exchange for dealing with enemy magicians and dealing with any problems the 'human' thought occurred in the cities 'dark side' Johnson could remain in _his_ city and continue to live his life as he wished. In short; he was to be Aliester's guard dog in exchange for an illusion of an normal life.

Not a very good deal for anyone except that 'human' but it wasn't something Johnson could try to change or negotiate; it had been that or 'disappear' for obstructing Aliester's plans.

At any rate Meltdowner had been pissed that Johnson had beat her and so had created a situation where he had to fight her with the rest of her group ITEM. Unable to use his powers due to his agreement with Aliester and with no help as he'd been caught without anyone with him The gemstone with an unnatural body had to fight against them with only his fists.

The result: he won.

Despite the disadvantage of number- those being 3 to 1 as Takitsubo Rikou was a tracker instead of a fighter- Johnson had a body far stronger then the average human and, unlike the last time, he knew how the biggest threat- Mugino- fought and so could create a strategy that allow him to obtain victory against the four girls.

To this day he wished he hadn't. Following her second defeat Mugino seemed to develop an obsession with him and always kept tabs on his actions in both the 'dark side' and in his ordinary life; so much so that one day at school he'd found her waiting outside his classroom to drag him into a shopping trip with her… or rather to use him as a human pack mule while she spent the money he'd had in his wallet before giving him a kiss as a 'reward' for 'accompanying' her.

That day eventually ended up as a somewhat tradition between the two as they usually met up once a month now for a talk, a bit of shopping- from his wallet- and a meal where they talked about various things from their pasts to her missions in ITEM to, oddly enough, his time at school one time around a year ago just as the school year had ended.

He hadn't been so surprised when she'd walked into the classroom as a student when the new school year started in April due to that talk… though it had annoyed his all time favourite teacher and mentor Tsukuyomi Komoe when Mugino seemed to care more about watching Johnson then actually paying attention to her lessons when she actually showed up to class.

She'd even openly cried in the lessons whenever it was really bad; something that had earned both level 5's the animosity from the rest of the class whenever that happened.

Naturally Mugino didn't seem to care.

As for the rest of the group ITEM… until about a year ago he'd easily gotten along with the three other girls and still did with two of the three; those two being Takitsubo Rikou and Kinuhata Saiai.

As to his relations with Frenda Seivelun… to put it bluntly it was sour. Out of the four of them Frenda had originally been the one Johnson had gotten along with the most, probably due to that unlike the rest of the group she actually seemed to have a life outside the city's 'dark side' and connected quite well with some acquaintances from his school when he'd been discovered hanging around with her.

He'd thoroughly enjoyed the girls company whenever he could hang around with her and she'd also taught him a little on how to handle explosions during the course of the year their relationship had been positive in return of him to teach her some useful had to hand moves as well as give her some spots on where she could personally train if she ever wanted to.

…And then he'd met Frenda's sister; Fremea.

Fremea had first been introduced to Johnson six months after his original meeting with Frenda and the two had immediately become brother and sister to Frenda's happiness. The girl had been the one to fill in the gap where Index had been that had appeared when he'd left London to head for Academy City and Johnson couldn't have been happier to play the older brother role for the then 8 year old.

Perhaps it had been that she truly wasn't connected to the 'dark side' unlike her sister but Johnson had usually spend more time with the younger girl as they usually met up more then he did with Frenda as unlike her elder sister Fremea didn't have to do work for any organisation and was truly a regular girl in the eyes of the city.

…And then she died, killed by one of the less then 20 saints in the world as a last ditch effort to gain an advantage over Johnson as he'd been slowly overwhelming the saint as he wasn't a person who'd angered easily and therefore didn't feed the magicians magic which had been based the the sin wrath.

That was until he killed Fremea after she'd wandered onto the battle between them in an effort to ensure Johnson himself was okay after they'd been separated a half-hour prior.

Johnson truly didn't remember much after that; the only thing he was aware of was that he'd gone into a berserked rage and ended up killing the saint.

Needless to say that his relationship with Frenda all but dropped rock bottom as a result as she, rightly in Johnson's opinion, accused Johnson that he'd been the reason she'd died and had even stood up against Mugino after she attempted to defend him.

As expected she still hadn't forgiven him and Johnson didn't believe he deserved forgiveness.

After all that saint had entered the city to fight him, had entered the city with the sole purpose to kill him for causing his companions death a year prior. For that sole reason that saint caused chaos and panic within district 7, using his wrath based magic to cause friends and families to fight each other in a magic induced rage in order to fuel the power of his spells, had caused him to fight against Mikoto for the first time after she'd been affected by the saints spell, had forced him to watch as his home was torn apart by its very occupants with both Judgement and and Anti-skill both helpless to stop the rampage and only became a part of it themselves.

And most of all, had forced him to watch a nine year old girl he'd considered his sister die before his eyes.

For being the cause of that, having been the reason it all and happened, how could be say he deserved forgiveness from the girl?

The answer… was that he couldn't.

"..ll? Will!?" Johnson was brought out of his thoughts by the worried voice of Index and found himself stared at by the worried faces of the three girls. Even Othinus was holding a tiny, almost unseeable, look of worry.

He didn't need to ask what was wrong, he could feel the sweat pouring down his brow and heart racing frantically at the thought of Fremea and how he'd failed to save her.

This had been the second time such a thing had happened to Johnson that day, once when the thoughts of the half-destroyed body of Othinus had invaded his mind an now with the thoughts of Fremea's dead body. Two instances that he had failed, two times he had caused someone he cared about to be hurt- though at that particular time with Othinus he had thought her an enemy due to a prejudice he'd gained since his battle with the magician that used spells based on the sin sloth.

Two things- among other things of course- that he deeply regretted and wished he could do over but who he never could for time was constantly in motion and could never to reversed.

Johnson sent the girls a very small but gentle smile.

"I'm fine girls just… drifting into some not so pleasant memories."

His response didn't seem to ease any of the girls nerves however, as shown when Index wrapped Johnson's left arm around her own and held it close while Ruiko did the same with his right.

Othinus merely moved to wipe away… the tear? Yes, unknown to the tall boy a tear seemed to have run down his cheek without him noticing.

The eye it had fallen from wasn't even watery; it had just fallen at its own volition in response to his memories.

Johnson found himself speechless at their actions… before quickly adopting a brighter smile, much bigger than the one before, and pulled the two girls beside him into an embrace.

He was once again reminded of just what he had come to fight for; the smiles and happiness of the people he cared for, the people that he loved and that loved him in return.

Ruiko, Index and Odin. These three girls were the people he felt most close to. Even though Index had lost her memory of him, even though he'd only known Ruiko for the four years since he'd entered the city and Odin even less, they were the ones he held the closest in his heart and he'd ensure that, no matter the cost, they could continue to smile.

For that was the person William Johnson was and would continue to be for the rest of his life.

* * *

After several minutes of nothing being said the two girls released Johnson's and he too released theirs. Smiles covered their faces, including that of the usually blank faced Odin, as they simply sat in the apartment in silence; a peaceful atmosphere enveloped the room and all its occupants knew that no more words needed to be said.

All they needed to do was enjoy each others company as they awaited the call from Crowley.

As they waited Johnson thought of how lucky he'd been to have met the three people that sat in the room with him, Ruiko thought of how happy the aforementioned boy had been when he'd seen the small nun next to him earlier that day and how happy she was on how the two seemed to have drifted back into what she assumed had been their original relationship before he'd come to the city, Index thought of how happy she felt while she was with the boy she was currently snuggling up to while wondering just what other people she'd forgotten that she'd been close to- her search for Aliester Crowley had been forgotten when she'd seen Johnson's tear earlier.

And Othinus… the magic god thought of just how… _different_ this world was from the last one.

Of how different it was from the world where Kamijou Touma existed. While she couldn't truly say how worse or better it was from the old world as not even she knew of everything that had taken place there but there was certainly some up-sides as well as some down-sides. The up-sides being that she was as close to the imagine breaker as she could be- not that she held any wish to use it at the present time- while also being near the person she assumed was the replacement of Kamijou Touma in this world.

After all the person William Johnson, had he existed in the old world, wouldn't have been someone who'd stuck to the sidelines and would have undoubtedly been one of the people that had confronted her alongside the previous wielder of Imagine breaker in GREMLIN's fortress Sargasso when she'd destroyed the old world.

But he hadn't, nor had he taken part in any of the major conflicts or events of the previous world. This and more led to her belief that the boy William Johnson hadn't existed in the old world.

But that didn't matter- not any longer- to the magic god as she'd quickly come to realise how different he was to Kamijou.

He held no hero complex while Kamijou did.

He didn't hesitate to ask for allies in his battles whenever he knew he couldn't win on his own strength alone; again unlike Kamijou until his battle with the member of GREMLIN Freyja- not that Othinus knew this of course.

He didn't hesitate to dirty his hands in blood while Kamijou never killed nor fought for the simple act of ending a person.

And perhaps most importantly of all, he never saw himself as a person that could become anything other than a single human who'd been born gifted and as such never moved to save every person he ever came across while Kamijou always strove to 'save' every person he could with his right hand.

While not even Othinus couldn't disagree such a trait wasn't bad Kamijou took such a trait to above the extreme, pushing himself into every, single, problem he ever came across in order to prevent others from suffering as he had as a child due to the Imagine breakers presence. Again such a trait wasn't bad but Kamijou based his entire life around it, never allowing himself to be selfish at any given point; choosing instead to allow himself to be a convenient tool for those that could manipulate his good intentions to suit their own purpose.

Just as Leivinia Birdway and Kihara Kagun had during both the incidents in Hawaii and Baggage City.

In short, due to his devotion to the trait of never being selfish Kamijou failed as a human being, a race that was natural selfish while Will was not.

…As for the bad-sides of living in this new world there existed this new magic cabal that she'd never encountered before, a cabal that practiced in magic related to the 7 sin spoke of in christianity.

So far only two had appeared out of the shadows, a magician by the name of Acedia, which was latin for sloth and the saint Ira, again a latin name that stood for wrath.

The fact that a saint had been able to use magic related to any of the 7 sins had stunned her; as a saint was a person born with a body that a likeness to that of the son of god magic related to a sin was the exact opposite of what a saint stood for.

As such the two powers should have destroyed him from the inside out the instant such a thing had been attempted.

That had not come to be, instead the saint and been able to use his chosen magic with surprisingly potent ability; having been able to cause the entirety of district 7 to fall into a state of chaos within a matter of minutes with a mere passive spell that his magic released. Regardless of her will memories of those long, painful few hours entered her mind.

Images of her acquaintances fighting to kill one another, random passerby's swinging their fists or using their esper powers to end each other, members of anti-skill and Judgment not working to repel the aggressors but joining into the fray to create one single giant battlefield with the whole of district 7 and several part in the neighbouring districts as the battlefield.

And while to a magic god such power wasn't significant and was something that could be crushed in an instant due to her renewed 50/50 chance limitation having returned after the fairy spell have been wiped out of her system every spell she now cast could result in her own destruction…

Just as it had during her first meeting with Will.

As such she held her hand in using any of her spells in accordance to an agreement with the aforementioned boy after they'd come to live together for her 'safety'.

Not that the magic god complained or attempted to reject the agreement of course, her spells were, in their very nature, very destructive as long as the intent was there.

She had later come to regret staying her hand after she finally discovered her male lover in the mall seventh mist cradling the dead body of a 9 year old foreigner girl with the… for lack of a better word lumps of flesh that had once been one of the less then 20 saints laying around them.

The boy hadn't been the same after that.

"Something wrong Odin?" her though must have been showing on her face as the boy that held her thoughts voiced a question, breaking the serene silence that had been held in the room.

"I'm fine, Will. I was just thinking of some events that had happened in the past." the boy seemed to understand as he just nodded before turning to Index and started a conversation with her, prompting Ruiko to join in soon after.

Othinus kept a blank face on the outside but held a bright smile on the inside as she watched the three interact. In the end it didn't matter if he was different from that boy or what was different in this world from the old one. This was a new world and a new opportunity for her.

It was a chance for her to do what she wanted and so that was what she would do. It was for that reason that she didn't truly need the imagine breaker that was in arms reach of her anymore, it was for that reason that she would remain in this world and ensure its continuation.

After all, the last words of that boy, the first person to ever understand her, had been to tell her to do whatever she wanted so as to not become like him. So she would do just that, not regretting where her selfishness took her.

And so, she once again thanked whatever force had allowed her to meet Kamijou Touma.

* * *

It was ten minutes later that Johnson's phone rang. In that instant all conversation between the four ended in silence and made the ringing of the phone the only sound in the room.

Not ever bothering to check who it was-for who would be calling at this time if it wasn't Aliester?- Johnson answered the phone.

"Yes?"

"Ah, Johnson-kun," at the sound of a voice that wasn't that of that 'humans' Johnson's insides froze. It wasn't due to the shock that someone else was calling him at this important time or anything silly like that-as his comrades in UNITY and friends from school phoned him regularly- no, his insides froze due to that the voice was of the famous heaven canceller, the greatest doctor in Academy City.

For him to call Johnson however… that could only mean one thing.

Someone he knew had ended up in his hospital.

Unaware of the boys inner plight the kind old man continued. "I've ended up with Vector-kun in my care with sword wounds across his entire body. While I won't pretend to know exactly how he'd ended up with such wounds I had a feeling that he'd ended up in this current state because of you; whether knowingly or not." The man with a face that resembled a frog kept speaking, saying things such as how long Vector had been in his care and, for some reason, how not a single person had seen the fight that had ended with him in this state and etc.

Johnson however had stopped paying attention at the mention of Vector's name. Vector, the strongest esper in Academy City, had been defeated and had been left in a half-dead state. Such a thing was almost impossible, for as arrogant as Vector had become due to his powers ensuring not a single attack could touch him Johnson knew from personal experiences that not even magic attacks could affect him, having seen him during the attack from Ira with his head completely clear.

And yet, somehow, a sword, a SWORD of all things had beat him, had wounded him in such a way to leave him with barely half his limbs intact.

It was obvious to Johnson that whoever had done this couldn't have ben a regular enemy. An esper had no chance of beating him and a regular magician wouldn't be able to break through his aim deflection field.

That was just a normal magician however, a saint was another matter.

Stiyl had mentioned during their fight that he was a part of Necessarius, the church of necessary evil. From what he'd discovered from what little conversation he'd had with Ira he remembered that he'd mentioned Necessarius had become a bigger threat than ever since they'd gained the power of a saint in their disposal and that was why they'd sent Acedia to the city, as a means to forge an alliance with Aliester… a proposition that, as far as both Ira and Johnson knew, had been rejected by the 'human'.

In any case, if Necessarius truly possessed a saint within their ranks then…

"…Thanks for telling me this Gramps, I appreciate it."

"Good… he seems to be coming to so I have to hang up now Johnson-kun. Do come and visit him- you aren't busy are you?- i'm sure Vector-kun would appreciate it; especially since you'll be returning the favour to him for all the times he's visited you."

"Yeah, i'll do that. Again, thanks." Johnson cut the line.

"Will…?" Index gave the boy another worried look, an aura of anger could be felt from him and hanged over almost like he was using magic to give off the effect.

"…I'm heading out to Heaven Canceller's hospital." He announced with a blank, emotionless voice. "Call me if 'that guy' gives the all clear to head over to the facility while I'm out." With that, without even giving any of the girls a second glance, Johnson left the apartment.

"…" The three remaining occupants gave each other a shared look before quietly settling back into their earlier positions.

They wanted to do something, they wanted to chase after the boy and make sure that he didn't do anything that might get him injured.

They wanted to do it… but they didn't. Each of the three girls held a trust, a feeling, towards the boy, even Index who'd only, in her eyes, met today, for behind that look of anger that had crossed his face a fierce look of determination was held deeper.

At seeing that look, the three girls could only believe in the boy and followed his wishes.

* * *

He had lost.

That was the first thought of the boy named Vector, known to the rest of the city as accelerator, as he awake in what could only be described as a hospital room if the general white colouring was any indication. Even the cloths he'd been wearing had been replaced by a white hospital gown that almost seemed to blend in with his white hair and pale skin.

"Good to see you're awake Vector-kun." the pale teen turned his gaze away from the ceiling and to his right towards the door where am elderly looking man with a face that looked oddly like a frog was walking towards him.

Vector knew this man, how could he not with the amount of times he'd come to his hospital to check in on that guy after he'd gotten injured fighting against whoever he did from time to time?

The boy clicked his tongue. "So its you huh? …how long was I out?"

"Two hours, honestly i'm quite surprised you're awake so soon considering your injuries."

Ah yes, his injuries. HIS. INJURIES!

Vector took his eyes away from the frog-faced doctor and down towards his chest before quickly undoing his hospital gown to see it.

His chest was not in its best condition, half the skin had been shredded clean off with several of his ribs peeking in through the gaps. Further down to his legs he could see that they weren't in any better condition.

For one his right leg was completely gone, bone and all with only a stump to show that there had been a leg there to begin with. His left leg wasn't any better, only hanging onto his torso by the half-inch bit of skin and the remains of his bones there.

Looking away from his destroyed lower body Vector took a look at his arms which were the only his of his body in decent condition with only several deep cuts across each limbs and both hands surprising still attached. Still though they weren't in usable condition- he'd barely been able to even move them to remove the gown- as half of his fingers had been cut off.

And while he couldn't see it his face had several slashes across it with his left eye half closed due to the two slashes arounds its eyelid.

All and all his general assessment was:

"I look like shit."

"That you do."

"…Why don't I feel any pain?"

"You were fortunate," the doctor ignored the question. "If Misaka-chan hadn't found you in that alley when she had you would be dead."

Vector's eyebrow- the one that stilled worked properly anyway- rose in slight surprise. Missal Mikoto had found him after his fight with that monster in human skin?

"That 3rd rate found me?"

"That's not a polite to address the person that both saved your life and is currently keeping you from feeling pain Accelerator." An annoyed voice came from his left side.

Vector briefly wondered why he hadn't noticed her already before realising it'd been do to the condition of his left eye and inwardly shrugged before turning his gaze towards the brown haired middle schooler in the Tokiwadai uniform.

As he gazed at her face he couldn't help but think about the level 6 shift project and how 35,000 clones were being made of the girl currently giving him a sharp glare before his threw the thoughts into the back of his mind and returned the glare.

"Frog face here was the one to save me 3rd rate, you only found me… not that it mattes though so… thanks I guess." He gave a little shrug- for that was all he could do in his condition- and turned back towards the doctor.

Had he kept his gaze on her for an instant longer he would have noticed a look of surprise cross her features.

Misaka Mikoto was… shell shocked. Around an hour ago, after her meeting with the researcher Kiyama Harumi, Mikoto had wandered through district 7 by herself since her roommate and best friend Shirai Kuroko had gone off on a tangent on how her… old friend William Johnson had become a headache for her since he'd apparently been involved in an incident in district 15 earlier that day but had used some odd code that prevented her from finding out about what had happened.

Having heard about that the other person that had been found on the scene- a man in priest robes of all things- Mikoto had begun to make her way towards the hospital he'd been admitted to in order to… _ask_ him about what had transpired between him and the older boy. It had been on her way to the hospital that Mikoto heard the sound of something crashing into an alleyway that she'd just past. Being the type of girl that held no true fear the strongest electromaster followed the noise she'd heard for about a minute before coming to the broken body of an albino boy with his left leg missing and cuts across the rest of his body.

Needless to say she'd immediately called for help from the very same hospital she'd been heading to in order for them to pick up the half-dead boy with her taking along when the hospital staff had arrived a few minutes later.

Upon reaching the hospital the boy had been immediately taken into extensive care where the doctor that looked like Gekoda, a frog mascot that was a real hit with elementary schoolers, had shortly followed suit and entered the room.

After about ten minutes the doctor came back out to ask the middle schooler to use her power to deactivate the boys nerves so as to ensure that he didn't feel any pain while they operated to save his life. While in most cases such a thing wasn't needed the boy- who by then Mikoto discovered was the citys number 1- was resistant to the usual drugs they used due to the limitless amount that had been pumped into his system while he'd been a part of the special ability institute. As such they needed something that wasn't a drug that could dull his nervous system.

Mikoto happily took on the job.

And so, for the past hour since then, she'd been steadily applying her power into the older boys nervous system in order to keep it in-active.

After all, having had your body ripped apart by a sword one would usually feel excruciating pain and agony and would be taken out of unconsciousness because of it during a potential critical moment which would end up killing him.

Now here they were, at present time with the boy awake and actually _thanking_ her for her current work. While such a thing shouldn't have been a surprise from a person the boy known to Academy city as Accelerator was the city's strongest and so didn't do things such as thank people for anything.

The fact that his initial attitude towards both her and Dr Gekota- as Mikoto was now going to call the frog-faced doctor form now on-had been insulting and, for lack of a better word, rude hadn't raised her opinion of him either.

And then he thanked her… even if he did insult her at the same time.

And so, the girl Misaka Mikoto was shell shocked.

Unknowing to the girls look- not that he would of actually cared had he seen it- Vector turned his focus on the doc as he ran over the full extend of his injuries- not that he needed to hear how much his body was broken as he could easily see it- talking about how irresponsible he was for ending up in his current state- not that he much cared for the mans words as, unlike that guy, this was the first time he was entering the hospital as a patient- and how Will was currently headed here to see him to-

Wait, what!?

"That guy's coming here!?" was it annoyance? was it shame? Vector didn't know exactly what to call the emotion that was filling his chest as the doctor before him repeated on how he'd called the gemstone just before he'd woken up and that he was on his way here.

He didn't know wha to call it… but he knew he didn't like it.

He also knew that he didn't want his fist friend to see him like this, he didn't want the first person who saw him as an actual human being instead of either a monster or a disposable tool to see his broken body…

He didn't want the person that had pulled him out of the darkness- the person who'd **_saved him_** from himself- to see him this weak.

'Huh, to think its been three years since we first met.'

Three years, to most people such a small time frame meant nothing as they just rolled on with their daily, ordinary lives doing ordinary things such as attending school, hanging out with friends, eating dinner with their family and generally acting like 1 of the 6 billion people in the world did when they were completely ordinary. To the former monster known as Accelerator however three year ago had been the turning point in his life; to him, three years had been when he meant a person who would become someone he'd call a friend.

Yes, three years ago, on the July 20th of that year, had been the first time he'd met the boy known as William Johnson.

'…Damn, to think i'd change this much in that small amount of time.'

This was true, in the three years that had passed since his initial meeting with Johnson Accelerator began to see the world in a different light, he became able to see how his own particular upbringing had led to him blocking out all the good things that were hidden in the world and focus only on the bad.

He became able to see the thin line that hung between what was morally right or wrong.

He began to slowly experience what a normal life could be like under the careful- extremely careful now that he thought about it- guidance of the older boy from a normal day of hanging out with ones friends to experiencing an ordinary school for the first time when he'd taken a trial run in the high school Johnson and Ruiko were currently attending.

Needless to say he'd joined Ruiko's class the day the current school year had started.

And, the thing that was the most precious gift the boy had ever been given, he had even gained a name.

Vector, while it certainly wasn't an ideal name for a person by an stretch of the imagination it was the first gift he'd ever received from a person.

It was also the only time he wouldn't care admitting he'd actually cried.

Just that time though, any other time he'd been accused of crying had lead to the accuser being sent to the very hospital he was currently in.

Getting back upon track though, even his general attitude towards people had changed slightly. While three years ago he'd generally treated people like shit and didn't really care what happened to them now… well he was still like that most of the time- Johnson, Ruiko and Odin being the only exceptions- but he did act a little bit more politer to people.

A good example being that he'd thanked the girl behind him instead of just waving off her involvement in saving his life like he normally would have.

All these changes in three years… all because of his accidental meeting with the boy William Johnson.

'Oh well… Probably for the better anyway.'

Vector held no illusion on how he'd have ended up had he never met Johnson that time; he knew that he would have continued being the guy he used to be and probably would have accepted taking part in the experiment with the Railgun clones in order to reach level 6 in order to reach his goal.

…Wait a minute, a thought just occurred to him. The reason that he'd ended up in his current situation was due to his fight with that monster in human skin- an ironic statement coming from him to be sure. Why was that person in Academy City again?

For what reason had be fought that monster and ended up in this broken state?

The answer was obvious to him. He only ever fought if someone attacked him first or if that guy got in trouble.

In other words, while Vector was lying in this hospital bed that woman was probably lying in wait for him to show his face!

"Damn it!" the boy with the broken body suddenly cursed aloud as his thoughts come full circle, damn it indeed. While he was stuck here Johnson was going to get attacked!

"Whats wrong Vector-kun?" Unknowing to his patients inner troubles the doctor known as heaven canceller sent Vector a questionable look- one that was also given by Mikoto though he couldn't see that.

"That mon-…woman that put me in this condition wasn't after me; she was watching that guy when I saw her so I…" He didn't need to say anything else; at the mention of Vectors way of referencing a certain gemstone they both knew Heaven canceller gave out a quick sigh before shaking his head.

"I wouldn't worry about that boy Vector-kun, if this woman is indeed after him then she'll have to fight in the condition you left her in most likely. While I am unsure as to what is happening between that boy today seeing as he's already sent one person to my hospital today I should probably have another room ready for this person you are referring to."

Despite the doctors words holding a nonchalant tone it put the boy in the hospital bed at ease. Yeah, what was he thinking? That guy would be fine, would probably beat that bitch black and blue without suffering a single injury if he ever fought seriously.

And considering that she'd gone and left him half-dead after their fight… that guy probably wasn't going to hold back.

Despite Vector holding himself in his thoughts he took note when heaven canceller left the room, leaving him alone with the Railgun.

The atmosphere in the room quickly became awkward as neither person could think of what to say to the other… or rather it was awkward for Mikoto, Vector couldn't care less being left alone with the 3rd rate as he didn't really feel like talking to her.

He was simply content with waiting for when Johnson would arrive with the person who'd cut him up slung over his back.

"Erm… Accelerator?" alas the silence was not to last as Mikoto timidly opened her mouth.

"…What do you want 3rd rate?" He asked uncaringly.

"Uh, well… I was just wondering who you and Dr Gekota were talking about is all. He mentioned that he'd already sent someone to the hospital today so I was wondering if you meant- hey! what are you laughing about!?"

Misaka Mikoto was once again in shock. Accelerator- **THE** Accelerator- was currently laughing at her as if she'd just told him the funniest thing in the world.

"Wha-whats so funny!?" She asked again after the boy didn't reply after half a minute.

Vector didn't hear her however and continued to laugh. Seriously!? Dr Gekota!? he found that hilarious.

'I guess that guy wasn't joking; the 3rd rate actually likes that little frog.'

After about 2 minutes the laughter finally stopped, though that only seemed to be because he was holding it in.

The grin that usually came with such laughter was still on his face though.

"S-sorry 3rd rate, I just found that nickname you made for the doc funny." His confession didn't seem to give the middle schooler any appeasement as she just kept glaring at him.

"Seriously though, i'm surprised a middle schooler would like that childish thing. I guess even the 'almighty Railgun' is still a kid after all."

"Hey! don't call gekota childish! he's extremely cute!"

her response caused Vector to laugh again. "Seriously? You should get a better hobby 3rd rate, maybe makeup or something to give guys a reason to go after you seeing as you lack in the attractive department."

"H-how dare you! What do you know about feminine looks anyway!? I bet you've never interacted with a girl before so how would you know about attractiveness!?"

"You're right, i've never interacted with a _girl_ , i'd rather look towards a woman thank you."  
"W-what?! You're into milfs?!"

Her words caused Vector to freeze. "…How the hell do you even know that phrase? No, i'm not into milfs, I just prefer mature girls compared to bratty ones like you."

"Bratty?! why you…!"

And so the one sided battle of words between the two level 5's continued… with the number 1 clearly having the upper hand the whole time. Behind the door Heaven canceller decided against going back in and closed the door- with both occupants not ever realising it had either opened or closed at all- and made his way back to the room he'd just prepared.

"Its nice to see the younger generation behave their age." The man openly laughed to himself as he thought of how neither level 5's realised smiles had adopted their faces as they argued.

"It'll make a good story for when that boy arrives with my new patient." Saying that the doctor with the face of a frog entered the room he'd just reached and waited for that boy to arrive.

* * *

To describe herself in a single word Kanzaki Kaori was exhausted. After her fight with the city's number 1 esper Kanzaki had made her preparations for her incoming battle against the boy known as William Johnson; the person that had sent her partner Stiyl Magnus into hospital while suffering only a pair of burnt hands.

That fact alone sent alarm bells ringing in the saints head as Stiyl was an accomplished magician that had mastered the use of all 24 runic letters and was a member of the the church of necessary evil Necessarius.

Against such an opponent an ordinary esper wouldn't have been able to match the 14 year old boy but this Johnson boy had managed to do just that with minimal injuries.

She honestly wasn't sure whether to be worried about this or relieved.

Worried because such a person was heading his way right now with her being in not the best of conditions and relieved because… that meant that he could be trusted with Index should she be forced to leave her here in the city.

The saint know as Kanzaki Kaori wasn't a person that wished anyone harm- her magic name Slavare000- be the salvation of those who cannot be saved- was a testament to that. As such she felt remorse over the state that she'd left the monster known as Accelerator but she hadn't had a choice in the matter. The boys ability had managed to reflect all of her attacks up to that point, destroying the seven wires that she used in part of her magic when she'd attempted to use them against the teen as well.

This and the act of destroying her right arm and left leg at a single touch had forced her to reveal her magic name and unleash her abilities breaker of god and, when even that proved ineffective when against the boys reflection, she had unleashed her sword- the shichiten shichitou- or the seven heaven seven sword- and used her most powerful attack Yuisen.

This attack when combined with her power from breaker of god was what allowed her to finally overpower her opponents reflection and leave him in a half-dead state.

Something that surprised the 18 year old greatly as with a combination of the two powers should have guaranteed a kill against a human no matter how powerful they were and no matter what defences they had.

And yet despite that the boy had survived and had been sent to the same hospital that Stiyl had ended up in.

All and all it had been one the toughest fight of her life and it had been against a single esper.

The thought of fighting more than one of that boy shook her to the core.

In the end, she hated to admit, she had only won that fight because she was one of the less than twenty saints in the world while he was an normal human.

That was the only reason she'd won, because her body was similar to that of the son of god.

Kanzaki didn't miss the implications of that.

Nevertheless though she'd won and now she was prepared to fight against the boy known as William Johnson. The opila rune was set in place and all she had to do was wait for him to arrive.

The reason she knew he would come was due to that from what she'd gathered about the boy from his interactions with Index and the one-eyed blond girl he was a person that cared deeply for his loved ones- a notion she herself agreed with- and as such he was bound to go see him when he was made aware of his condition.

Why was she sure that the the monster known as Accelerator and William Johnson knew each other? Before their battle had begun Accelerator had made reference to 'that guy' and his gaze had turned to Johnson for an instant; a notion the sight with her vision of 8.0 had easily picked up that had confirmed the connection between the two.

As that was the situation that was why she was currently standing in the middle of a public street around 1 kilometre away from the hospital. The street itself was empty as the opila runes had been activated around a minute ago when Johnson had entered the radius of her runic array- around 1 kilometre as well.

It wouldn't take long now, all that was left now was to wait for the boy to appear.

It was around a minute later when Johnson arrived before Kanzaki. His hands were wrapped in bandages that had been applied to him to Odin when they'd entered the apartment but such observations were unneeded as the look of anger held within the boys gaze was a more obvious thing to take note of.

"…So you're Stiyl's partner huh saint." it wasn't a question.

"…Correct, I am Kanzaki Kaori of the church Necessarius, the same branch of the Anglican church as both Stiyl and Index." Johnson gave no obvious response to the saints words but she did notice that his left hand clenched into a fist.

"So you're a friend of Index as well huh? And I suppose like Stiyl you care for her deeply as much as I do."

As much as he did? Kanzaki wasn't aware of his past with Index and Stiyk and as such simply gave him a confused look.

"Oh, you didn't know? I'd have figured Stiyl would have told you when you entered the city but oh well; since i'm in a talkative mood right now saint i'll tell you." Kanzaki's brow narrowed at his use of the word saint. It held just… distain in his voice as if the word was a personal strike against him and merely thinking the word made him sick.

"You see," unaware of the older girls inner thoughts Johnson went on. "Before I came to Academy City I lived in London." The revelation caused her eyebrows to raise in surprise. "My parents were priests of the St Georges cathedral and as such I was taken with them whenever they went there. Ship to when I was nine and one day, while I waited for my parents to leave the cathedral I wandered in and came across a certain silver haired nun…"

And so Johnson revealed to the saint his relations with both Stiyl and Index and why Stiyl had chosen to fight him on his own. Each of the revelations the boy revealed to the older girl sent a shock down her system. Why hadn't she been informed of this? Why hadn't father Johnson ever mentioned that he had a son? Why had the Archbishop never revealed that someone with connections to the church was in Academy City?

All these and more were question that filled the mind of the saint Kanzaki Kaori as the boys story came to an end.

Despite being distracted by these questions however she didn't miss him entering a combat stance and release a small amount of killing intent.

"Well then saint, now that you know my side of the story I think its time we get this fight out of the way." he announced with a voice that betrayed no emotion while his gaze intensified.

That very gaze sent a shiver down Kanzaki's spine as she too entered a combat stance of her own before she tried to suppress it; she was a saint and, even with a half broken body, she wouldn't lose to this ordinary human, no matter how strong he wa-

Kanzaki was thrown out of her thoughts when she suddenly felt something impact her. it wasn't the cool evening wind nor was it the pain she was constantly feeling from her sustained wounds though the impacted force contributed to it.

Kanzaki herself couldn't understand what had happened. Just a moment ago the boy had been speaking to her with around 50 metres between them and his muscles showing no trace of stored energy to make a sudden sprint towards her. Until a moment ago the boy named William Johnson had been at a distance he couldn't possibly have moved through in an instant to reach her…

So why, why was the boys fist now smashed into her face!

The impact threw her backwards a few metres before she slammed into the ground with a heavy thud, causing her broken limbs to cry out in pain.

How? how had he-

Kanzaki was suddenly in the air again by around 5 metres as she received a kick from Johnson, who quickly followed her upwards and delivered a series of quick punches to Kanzaki's stomach before throwing her to the ground again.

"If you thought you'd win just because you were a saint you've got another thing coming Kanzaki." Johnson uttered with no emotion as he landed a few metres away from his down foe.

"After all…" Just as Kanzaki managed to get to her legs Johnson had appeared before her again to deliver another punch that sent her flying.

"You wouldn't be the first saint i've fought against… and you certainly wouldn't be the first saint i've beaten." With those words said Johnson moved to deliver a series of punches once again.

* * *

The beatdown continued to last for several minutes. For the majority of that time Johnson simply treated the body of Kanzaki as a dispensable beat up doll that wouldn't break no matter now much he tried to do so.

For example he allowed himself to use some of his unnatural strength to 'test' just how durable a saints body was and found that even when he actually tried to break her bones- the ones that weren't broken already anyway- they simply refused to do so.

For another example he sent the girl flying further and further into the air with a series of kicks and allowed gravity to take its course to bring her back down.

Again her bones didn't break.

He impaled her with his solid blades of blood and found that the blades actually broke if he didn't completely focus on keeping the shape intact when it met her skin.

Again her body did not break.

He tried using one of the pillars of a building he'd sent her through to beat her half to death.

The pillar broke and her body remained as unbroken as ever.

He took the sword she seemed to be hold at all times and attempted to slice her a part with it.

…She actually resisted with all her might there and he just let her keep hold of it.

He dropped one of the nearby wind turbines on her.

Nothing.

He tried to choke her into unconsciousness by crushing her windpipe.

Nothing.

He tried to simply bury her ten feet under the ground by throwing her into it as hard as he could.

NOTHING!

No matter what he did to her and no matter how much her body continued to bend into unnatural angles she continued to stand.

Her body was currently a broken mess… perhaps saying that his earlier attempts to 'test' her body had done nothing was somewhat of a lie? His attacks certainly did something each time he struck and now currently he was sure all the bones in her formerly uninjured limbs were all broken and he was sure that her internal organs were barely functioning by this point.

So why did she continue to stand? Why did she continue to try and fight after each beatdown?

It wasn't a question that Johnson actually needed an answer to; at least not from the woman in question. The answer was clear as day to him.

Still though…

"why do you continue to stand Saint? Your body is broken and you are in no possible position to fight so why do you persist?"

In response to the boys words the girl Kanzaki Kaori gave a weak glare and slowly dragged her broken self towards him; who stood about 10 feet ahead of her.

Had she been in her normal condition Johnson was sure that she could have covered that distance before he could blink but even before his one sided beatdown on her she was already half-broken from her fight against Vector and so she had already lost when the 'fight' between them had started.

"Just stop," he uttered softly, despite his position of being the one who'd been responsible for her current condition she didn't want to fight to begin with. Similar with Stiyl he would have been happy to have simply talked it out with his current opponent but he'd known such a thing wouldn't have been possible.

Just like Stiyl Kanzaki held within her a deep anger towards herself for being unable to save Index- Johnson wasn't aware to why he knew this for it was merely a speculation of his but he felt it as fact.

Just like Stiyl Kanzaki wished to keep her as safe as they possible could with their own power without relying on anyone else.

…Just like Stiyl Kanzaki wasn't willing to reason to anyone else with regards to Index and were happy to share the burden of being the ones who took away her happiness each year with the erasure of her memories.

It was this point that had led to Johnson delivering this brutal and unjust torture; he was trying to show that there were other people that could protect that girls smile and her happiness other than themselves.

He was trying to show that they didn't have to hold the burden of that girls fate by themselves.

…He was trying to show them that they didn't have to strive to be the hero of this story of theirs.

Heh, a 'hero'. The word was the biggest cliche in regards to people who did was what was seen as the 'right' and 'just' thing to do. The true was truly the ugliest title a person could be given in regards to real life as a hero was only such when the people of the world had need of them.

And they were immediately discarded if seen betraying the expectations set by the world; as if to say if was they job to pick up the slack for the rest of the world when it faltered and to be unable to was a sin upon their existence.

It was this reason that Johnson disliked ever being called a hero by those people that he helped.

For William Johnson, in his own eyes, wasn't the paragon of justice known as a hero but an ordinary boy forced with the 'gifts' he possessed to become something out of the norm.

But it was precisely because he was an ordinary person in the world that he could work towards the goal of protecting the smiles of those he love.

As so, he would protect the girl Kanzaki Kaori from trying to be a hero as well; for that would be what that girl with silver hair would want.

So…

"…Enough." Johnson moved through the 5 feet that was still between him and his opponent and delivered a final punch, causing her to be thrown through the air once again until she hit the ground 5 metres away.

That should have been it; that truly should have been it but, as if to defy his expectations, she stood once again.

"This has gone on long enough saint, just stay down so that you can heal and regain your mana." she merely chose to move towards him again.

"…You…" it was faint, extremely faint, but her destroyed girls lips moved to produce her raspy voice. "Y…you… have no… clue what you… are doing…"

"I understand exactly what i'm doing saint, i'm getting you out the way so that me and my girlfriends can save the girl i've seen as a sister for years."

"You… you can't… save In…dex." She managed to get out as she continued to limp forward. "If we don't… if we don't erase… her memories every year… then she'll-"

"About that, did neither of you decide to actually open a book or browse the web as to how memories work?" Johnson interrupted his foes words and began to make his own way toward at a relatively slow pace. "A persons brain can store up to 140 years worth of memories. With that being said even with the 103,000 grimoires taking up 85% of her available 'storage space' as it were she could easily fill her head with a couple more thousand more books and she'd still be able to operate as a human just fine."

As the information he'd just provided Johnson could easily tell that Kanzaki began confused; while he was currently unaware of just what the church had told the two of them to convince them Index's memories needed to be erased he was sure what he'd just said would contradict what they'd have been told.

"But… the Arc…Archbishop said… that every year Index would… that she would gain the… the remaining 15% as she… as she couldn't ever forget anything."

"…Well clearly then Laura was lying to you, though you're partially to blame for this too." At seeing her confused face again he added. "If that was the case then how come Index came of live over 7 years old? By you very words since she filled 15% of her memory yearly then she should have died shortly after i'd met her 8 years ago."

His words and the desired affect as the fact slowly piece together a conclusion that undoubtedly left a bad taste in her mouth as well as uncontrollable anger and regret.

It was such a simple look in logic that people just tended to ignore it if they were desperate enough.

It was the same as an overly concerned mother demanding a doctor to give her son that had the flu antibiotics in order to treat it. When you looked at things clearly one could see that the drugs were unnecessary but to the mother who was frantic with worry she didn't and merely wanted what the doctor could provide… something that would in the long term hurt her child by allowing other viruses in the system gain immunity to those drugs.

It was that kind of situation, and it wasn't one that could easily be solved without someone to calm the mothers mind.

In this instance it was the arrival of the information that Johnson had just provided.

"Then… then we've…"

"Screwed up badly." the boy said to the girl with no ounce of pity. "You didn't use common sense when hearing the news as Index's condition was your primary concern and the basic logic just went over your head. Nothing wrong with that, after all despite being a saint you're still human and we're a species known for making them."

By this point Kanzaki had stopped moving and was simply looking at her feet while using her sword as a clutch to steady herself while Johnson was still slowly making his way forward.

Now being close without worry to an attack the younger of the two could assess the older ones situation in regards to her injuries.

The result wasn't pleasant.

For one the limbs that had been probably touched by Vector had been bent into a 90 degree angle making standing almost impossible seeing that only a single leg was in workable condition. Her right arm had been twisted into an impossible angle that made it useless and so couldn't hold the sword that was being held in her bleeding and de-fleshed left hand.

Notable bruises and other such wounds could also be seen across her stomach, chest, face and damn near every other part of her body from the torture Johnson had put her through those last few minutes.

Again he found himself amazed that the girl was still standing before he shook his head as he felt the people clearing field fell.

It seemed that the saint had finally run out of her mana and was falling towards him.

Johnson quickly made way to grab her as delicately as he could.

"P…please, sa…ve… Index…" were her last words before she finally allowed herself to fall into unconsciousness.

"Yeah, you can count on that." he gently whispered into the girls ear, which in turn caused a small smile to enter her face.

"Now then, to the hospital." With that in mind Johnson delicately placed the saint on his back and moved as fast as he'd allow himself.

* * *

In less then a minute Johnson had arrived at his destination, gave a quick hello to the receptionist- a meek girl called Horoka- who merely gave out a small sigh at the look of the person on his back and simply gave him a room number to where she was to place the girl and did just that.

As he covered Kanzaki with the bedsheets he heard a sigh come out from behind him.

Turning round he came face to face with the doctor known as heaven canceller.

"This is the second patient you've sent to my hospital today Johnson-kun- a young girl this time to boot- do you have anything to say about that?"

In response to the old mans words Johnson gave a shrug. "I've got nothing to say to that gramps, just dumb luck that these two would try and attack me on the same day I guess. The red head somewhere on this floor?"

"Yes, that boy wasn't that injured- especially when you compare him to both this girl and Vector-kun- so he's merely resting now. This one however… will take a bit more time to heal."

He gave a nod to his doctors words. "I see… feel free to send me their bills when they get released." he said. "Its my fault they're both in here so its only fair I pay for their treatment."

"Thats unusually generous of you, normally whenever you send someone here you just leave it at that. The last time you paid for the bill was with number 4 two years ago after 'that' incident."

"Yeah well, that was my fault too, I got in the way of her work and as a result she lost her arm. Only fair I pay for her new one."

The frog-faced doctor simply nodded.

"…Well if that's all i'll be heading to Vector's room. Its just down the hall from here right?" another nod. "Great, see you soon doc."

"I do hope you're not being serious, frankly i'm tired of seeing you every other month."  
"Your words wound me gramps, surely i'm not that bad a company."

"As company no, as a patient yes."

They both gave a small laugh at that before Johnson finally left the room to let the man work.

After a minute of walking down the hall Johnson came to a door that was labeled with 'occupant: Vector'.

Johnson just opened the door and was about to walk in when…

"What do you mean that made sense! That was pure deus ex machina at its finest!"

"So what, considering the series there was no way they were gonna end it with him killing the guy."

"But it still made no sense and came out of nowhere!"

"Who. Cares?"

"I CARE! IT RUINED THE FRANCHISE FOR ME!"

Johnson found himself surprised and dumbfounded by the situation before him. Lying in the hospital bed as he expected was Vector not looking all to intact with most of his limbs hanging on my a thread and one of his legs actually missing.

What he wasn't expecting was for Mikoto to also be here and for the two to actually arguing rather heatedly.

Well, maybe that was part was expected but all the same.

"…What are you two talking about?" he couldn't help but ask.

In that instant both level 5's seems to shut down as all notes of conversation were suddenly stopped. After a long moment of silence both boy and girl turned towards Johnson who held but a curious but amused smile on his face.

"Was this a bad time? If so I can leave and you too can carry on."

"W'Will! The hell did you get here!?"

"Just now, you look like shit by the way. Kanzaki do all that to ya?"

"…Kanzaki, you know that monster?"  
"Not really, I only know her name cause she told me before we 'fought'." Both level 5's saw the air quotes Johnson made when he said the word. "She's in a room down the hall and probably heading to intensive care right now due to the extent of her injuries."

Vector gave a simple nod, satisfied that the bitch that'd left him like this was in a similar state.

It was in the silence left by the two boys that Mikoto finally took in just who'd walked into the room and sent a glare toward him.

"So it was you!"

"Oh, its you Railgun. Didn't notice you there."

"Didn't notice me my ass! What the hell are you doing blowing up warehouses and sending people into the hospital for!?"

"I don't need to explain myself to an immature brat that still wears kiddie underwear and is so embarrassed by this that she also wears shorts to cover them up."

"W-why the hell are you talking about my underwear as if it was the weather!? you want me to shock you!?"

"In a hospital room? You're sure gutsy Railgun saying such a thing; especially in-front of Vector here who could re-direct your electricity before you could do anything about it."

"Shut up!"

"…If you two siblings are done yelling at each other can we stop arguing before I beat you both into unconsciousness." the two named siblings turned their eyes away from their argument to face the number 1 who held an amused but annoyed expression.

"…Sure thing, any more and i'd have had to send Railgun out the window."

"As if you'd have the guts while i'm the reason 'Vector' here isn't feeling any pain."

"Enough already!"

Several arguments, threats, the occasional slap and shot spark the three teens sat in relative silence as they allowed themselves to calm down.

Mikoto was still sending a glare towards the eldest of the three while the aforementioned teen was keeping one eye on his phone while looking out the window with eh other. Right now Johnson was simply waiting for the call from Odin to give him the all clear to head out towards district 10.

Vector was simply lounging around in his bed with a disinterested look.

"…Why, just why have you been ignoring me this past year?"

Unsurprisingly the silence was broken by the only female in the group with a question towards the person who'd both worried and annoyed her to no end for the past year.

Said boy simply ignored her.

"Hey! I asked you a question!"

"I heard you Railgun I just have no desire to answer." was Johnson's quick reply.

"Why not!" Mike yelled in retaliation. "I know we haven't exactly had a good talk since I became a level 5 but the treatment you've been giving me since October 9th last year came out of nowhere and you haven't given me a reason as to why."

October 9th, while in the rest of the year that date didn't mean anything unless it happened to be your birthday for Academy city it was the date it gained its independence and was a holiday for its citizens.

To William Johnson and the girl Frenda Seivelun however it was the day they'd lost a precious younger sibling a year before.

That day the magician Ira had attacked the city in order to kill Johnson but had ended with his own death after he'd killed Fremea Seivelun.

Mikoto had been one of the many victims of the saints magic and had battled Johnson on the bridge they'd met on yesterday. During said battle Mikoto had yelled out her grievances against Johnson for being a hypocrite and a person who deserved all the pain he'd went through and that 'losing' his power was something he deserved.

Johnson knew that such a thing to hold against her was stupid considering she'd been sent into a wrath-induced rage but her words had held such raw emotion and conviction that he couldn't help but agree with her.

Since then he hadn't been able to look at the younger girl without remembering her words.

Johnson just ignored her words again and looked away from her gaze; it wasn't something he could discuss with her as she wasn't connected to either the 'dark side' or the magic side.

As such it wasn't a world he would willingly let her in… that way he could keep her safe from harm.

"Answer me Will… answer me damn it!" a bolt of electricity shot out of Mikoto's forehead before she could prevent it and it headed towards the older boy at a speed he wouldn't be able to dodge.

So he simply flicked it away with his hand outside the window instead; causing the window to shatter as the re-directed electricity ran through it.

"Really, this is why I consider you an immature brat Railgun. You can't control your emotions at all which usually leads to damages like this… just for the record i'm not paying for that window."

"…" the electric shooting middle schooler glared at the boy again before adopting a frown and looking away.

"…" Vector gave the situation between the other two in the room a look over and sighed in annoyance. He found the situation between the two annoying as he thought that Johnson was being an idiot for acting the way he was but chose to stay out of it.

After all he was the absolute last person that should bring such a thing up.

Before another argument could break out though a blessing of god- at least in Vector's eyes- came from a ringing of Johnson's phone.

"Finally." Ignoring the look from Mikoto Johnson quickly taped the receiver and put the phone to his ear.

"We get the all clear?"

"Yeah," came the voice of Odin. "'that guy' just sent the message; the three of us are heading there right now. Where are you, still at the hospital?"

"Yeah, i'm in his room right now along with Railgun who seems to be keeping his nerve inactive."

"Misaka's there?… please tell me you two haven't destroyed _another_ hospital room in one of your arguments."

"Not funny, the rooms perfectly fine though the windows been shattered from one of her stray bolts."

"…Meaning you deflected the lightning towards the window right."

"…Maybe."

A sigh was heard from the receiver. "Just get over here and away from her before you actually do end up destroying the room."

"Yeah yeah, see you there Odin."

The magic god a huff of approval before disconnecting the line.

"…You heading out?" Vector asked his friend.

"Yeah, still got one last problem to fix before the days done."

In response the albino looking boy gave Johnson a simple nod.

Johnson got out from his seat and made his way towards the door."

"Hey! You're just leaving!?" Came the yell from the Railgun.

"Yeah, i've got something to take care of so i'll be leaving… take care of Vector for em while i' gone kay Railgun? You can do that can't you?"

No even waiting for a response Johnson left the room without looking back and began to make his way towards the exit and district ten.

It was time to put an end to that girls suffering once and for all.

* * *

 **And… done!**

 **Whew, another long chapter written and taken care of, damn though i'm surprised how much i'm writing in these though.. This arc alone's already reached that of what a normal light novel would be so thats cool.**

 **I hope the… somewhat info dump on Johnson's past wasn't too bad but what can I say? It sort of just spewed out while I was writing before I could stop it and I just rolled with it. Still though, i'd say we've learned quite a bit on some of the key events that have defined Will's role in this world.**

 **…** **Huh, thinking about it I should have probably called the chapter ' the beatdown of a saint' instead of fight but oh well, considering the events of last chapter with Kanzaki fighting Vector it was obvious from the start that it wasn't going to be anything but, at best, a battle of words between them so I combined that somewhat with Will releasing some of his frustrations on the events that have been taking place around him.**

 **Anyway, please remember to R &R and i'll see you guys for the conclusion of this first arc.**

 **Till me good bye!**

 **P.s if the editing looks off or any extremely odd stuff is in the chapter so I can het rid of it. I say this because in order to upload I had to use... unorthodox methods as my computer refused to simply upload the whole thing normally.**


	5. Chapter 4

**Hello everyone and welcome back. We'll be finishing up the Index arc today along with introducing some recurring characters that'll play roles within later arcs.**

 **I'll not waste anyone's time so lets just get right into it.**

 **P.s. As some of you may have noticed the summary of the story has changed. The reason for this is,well... the last one sucked; I'm not going to deny it so I've changed it to what it is now. Do tell me what you think of it so I can see if I need to improve it any more or not please.**

* * *

Chapter 4: To save the smile of a single girl

It didn't take long for Johnson to arrive within the rundown area of district 10. As usual the streets and roads were covered in the wastes of dropped cans, wrappers and all manner of other bits and bobs that had been just left to rot on the ground where they lay as the city management no longer bothered to actually sent out any cleaning bots to keep the streets tidy.

And why should they? It was the black sheep among the 23 districts the city had to offer and was the home to many of the city's skill-out gangs with it being left generally unsupervised.

There were the odd patrol now and then of course to 'keep an eye open' for any potential trouble the gangs could cause but it was mainly used just as a formality in order to keep appearances that Anti-skill were doing their job properly. The patrols themselves tended to be rather small- especially when you compare the size of them to those that took route in districts such district 1 where the city's administration was located or district 3 where Accommodations for the city's visitors were held.

…Granted that it made sense that the patrol for those particular districts were bound to be bigger due to their importance but in all fairness they were the districts that were the most locked down.

That was meant literally as the entire districts could be locked up in a matter of minutes when you compare it to the rest of them which took around half an hour at the very latest.

Such a thing was unimportant to Johnson however as the districts state of abandonment was what made it possible for what he and the three girls that were probably waiting for him were going to do without any interrupts.

Speaking of Johnson…

"Well well, what have we hear?" Came the sweet, seductive voice from the teenage girl before him as he'd made his way through over half the distance he needed to travel to reach his goal. The girl seemed to be around Johnson's age with a skimpy red dress that seemed to be barely hanging onto her frame, allowing him to see her rather well developed curves and assets, with matching eyes and hair that reached down to her shoulders to boot.

The girl was looking at Johnson as if she was staring at a piece of expertly made meat as she seemed to be wandering over to him in an almost drunken stupor though the focus in her eyes were making it clear that she was clearly in a sober state of mind.

"…Who are you magician? Considering the aura you're releasing its clear you're not part of the Anglican church." Johnson said slowly as he tried to hold himself back from simply _ravishing_ the girl before him.

It wasn't something Johnson wanted to do and it certainly wasn't something that should have been on his mind but the clear aura of magic she was releasing was igniting the flames of lust within his heart.

Seemingly noticing Johnson's state of mind the girl released a laugh that sounded like a siren's call. "I'm surprised that you're actually able to resist my field of lust at all William Johnson, its a passive spell that will never be shut off that fills the surrounding area around its caster with the embodiment of the sin lust that effects all those who enter it." The girl explained with a rather sexy smirk- how the heck can you make the simple act of smirking sexy!?- as she wandered ever closer to the resisting boy.

"Humph, if I recognise the spell I can act in defiance of it. I may not be a magician but as that spell is of a weak, passive nature its something that can be ignored if one know of its existence." While that was certainly true that didn't mean that the spell still didn't affect him.

It was similar to that of receiving a wound, you can ignore the pain with all your might but that wont chance the fact that its still there.

This field of lust was the same, even if he resists acting on the newly fuelled lust in his heart it was still there and constantly growing as he continued to stand within the affect radius of the spell.

"Hmm, true true. If certainly isn't the first time you've encountered this type of magic is it Will?"

"No, its the same type of passive field your two allies had when I faced them only it was with their own sins instead of your own… Libidinem."

The girl now identified as Libidinem, the latin word for lust, nodded almost happily as she finally reached her destination; a foot away from Johnson himself.

"Yep, thats my name! I'm happy you spent the time to learn the Latin words for the seven sins; it also makes it look like you care for us."

"Don't delude yourself Lust," he interrupted using the english word for her name. "I only learned them due to a series of fortunate events after my encounter with Ira."

The embodiment of lust simply gave out a shrug at that. "Oh well, doesn't really matter anyway." Saying that she reached out her hand and touched Johnson's cheek. "Still though… I certainly wouldn't mind _getting to know you a little better_ Will. i. am…" she breathed out directly against his ear, causing an unwanted shiver of pleasure to past down his spine. "Want do you say? Want to have some. fun. with .me? I might even tell you my real name if you do."

"…Not intersted."

She gave him a pout. "Have it your way Johnson, I suppose the next time we meet it'll be as enemies." Saying that the girl who'd become the sin lust in physical form stepped away from the gemstone and began to make her way out of sight.

"Tell me something Lust," he spoke up, causing the girl to stop. "How'd you get into the city? I highly doubt 'that guy' just let you walk in."

The smirk just gave another smirk. "That's for me to know and you to find out… though I may tell you if you-"

"No."

"-Fine then, then i'm not telling. Farewell." With that she disappeared into the shadows.

"…Damn, that field of hers was potent." the boy muttered to himself as he attempted to calm his quickly beating heart. It would seem that the effect of the spell only increased the closer one was to the caster as as she'd gotten within arms reach he'd been forced to use his power to slow his heart to that of a quarter efficiency to keep himself in check when she'd blown into his ear.

Truly, the art of seduction was that girls most powerful weapon.

'Oh well, i've wasted enough time here.' With that Johnson allowed his heart to return to normal and picked up the pace towards his ultimate destination.

* * *

Unknown to the fast moving boy his movements were being watched by two individuals, one was the girl known as Libidinem, who held an annoyed look on her face- a huge contrast when compared to the cheerful expression she'd held when she'd spoken with Johnson a few moments prior- as she looked towards her partner.

"Don't make fun of me! I'm the embodiment of lust, its only natural i'd act like that!"

In response to the blushing girls words- for she indeed was blushing- the second figure- another woman that appeared in her early twenties wearing a dress similar to the younger girl only green that covered her own developed figure well that matched her own eyes. Her hair on the other hand was a mixture of black with hints of teal green here and there along with a green rose jewel hair pin picked away- gave a teasing grin.

If a person were to walk by in her general vicinity they would feel an uncontrollable feeling of jealousy as they gazed at her or of whoever they happened to spot upon making contact with her own unique field spell and want to take whatever made them jealous.

Such was the effect of the field of envy.

"Oh, is that so?" the woman asked her young partner. "But you've never acted that way toward any of your other targets… and you've certainly never actually tempted someone with a night with you. Has our little lust got a crush?"

The blush on the girls face increased in intensity. "N-no way! Thats impossible! He's the enemy, the guy that killed Ira and Arcedia, its only natural i'd try to seduce him so that I could kill him!"

"And yet you held off on using the full extent of your fields power." The woman calmly mentioned. "Had you used the fields full power you'd have probably been able to override his resistance and he'd have been all yours yet you didn't, do tell this woman unknown to love why?"

"Shut up you lying, manipulative woman! And like hell have you never known love, what about you and-"

"What him and I have is merely a relationship based on mutual desire. There is no love between the two of us and we both acknowledge that."

"…I hate you."

"Love you two my dear Libidinem."

"…I _really_ hate you right now Invidia."

The woman known as Invidia, the latin word for envy, merely laughed at her young charges depressed state while keeping an eye open towards the now slowed down Johnson.

* * *

It was a few minutes of moving later that Johnson finally arrived at his final destination. As expected the state of the special ability institute was in disarray. Chunks of the buildings exterior was riddled with gunfire and several more holes that were seen were obviously made using explosives.

Yomikawa certainly hadn't been holding back when she'd brought her squad here those some years ago clearly.

Shaking his head from such thoughts Johnson made his way through the biggest hole and entered the building proper.

There really wasn't much to mention as he looked around him as he made his way, on most of the walls holes from bullets could be seen-though not to the extent of the entrance- or held various quantities of blood spilt from who he guessed was the researchers that had refused to surrender to the superior Anti-skill forces.

Truly, idiots.

It wasn't until a few minutes had passed that Johnson stopped. It wasn't because he'd found the three girls that were waiting for him or because he'd found some unwanted attention like a member of skill-out.

No, he'd stopped because he'd found a door covered in blood though that wasn't important, what was important was the sign next to the room that read:

Holding cell 10032: Subject Accelerator.

This… had been Vectors room at one point. Various thoughts of anger, sadness, and cruel satisfaction entered his mind as he gazed at the rusted, hanging on by a hair, door; thoughts of seeing Vector looked up here being experimented on and treated like a lab rat, thoughts of the countless unnamed children that had probably died here at the results of the things they'd been forced to go through as a result of being sent here, thoughts of the researchers being gunned down for performing such unethical things in the supposed name of 'scientific advancement'.

To make things clear Johnson was no fool, he was fully aware that sometimes things had to take an unethical turn if one wanted to succeed and knew that there were those who'd always be willing to do such test to further their research. It wasn't that that bothered him at all in this situation.

No, what angered him so much was that they used _children_ as the guinea pigs to test their work. Children were the future to this world and if were allowed to die due to these types of test and denied that future then they were denying the world the chance to improve with the new ideas those children may bring.

…Taking a few quick breaths to calm himself Johnson tenderly put his hand on the door, move it as gently as he could to the side and walked in.

…The room was a miniature prison cell. NO, scratch that even a prison cell was more more inviting then this room!

It was small with very little space that could only hold a small futon for the kids to sleep on and a very little chest to place whatever they wished to. Other than that the room was barren with only an extremely dull grey colour covering the walls. There were no windows in the room despite it being at the very edge of the building so the only light could come from the hallway as there were also on lights.

All and all it wasn't a room you'd allow a child to live in and it only caused the anger Johnson was feeling to well up again.

BANG!

A shockwave was sent through the wall before it collapsed as Johnson delivered a punch to it to calm himself. Getting angry at the past wouldn't help anyone he reasoned to himself as he allowed his arm to fall to his side and rummage through the small chest that was tucked away in a corner.

Within there was only a single item, a photo of two people holding a small child with messy black hair and happy sapphire blue eyes as he seemed to be in mid swing around his parents arms.

The anger came back… how dare they… HOW DARE THEY LEAVE THIS IN HIS CELL!

…It was obvious to the boy that the child in the photo was Vector when he was very young, long before his power had manifested and he was still an ordinary boy alongside who we presumed to be his parents… the model of a happy family was the clear theme of the photo as all those in it were happily smiling for the camera.

This… this was too cruel. Deemed a monster by the public and treated as less than human by the people that had worked in the facility and the city as a whole and, to add insult to injury, the only possession he had during those horrible years was a reminder of what he'd lost due to his powers.

It was then that Johnson was again reminded of what the cruelest thing known to the world was: human ingenuity.

It was just an effective ploy that he had to give the on who came up with the idea a pat on the back… and a punch to the face. They wanted a weapon out of Vector and to do that they need him to think he didn't deserve to be anything but one. What better way to do that to a person then to remind him of what he'd lost due to his abilities.

It was clever and it was cruel but effective.

It was certainly a plan that had worked considering Vectors old mindset on things.

…After a few moments of thinking Johnson tenderly folded the picture in half and placed it within his pocket.

Vector… would probably appreciate having this back was what he'd justified himself with in taking it… as well as the thought of potentially finding the two adults in the photo, if they still lived, so Vector could possibly see them again.

Then again knowing Vector he probably wanted nothing to do with the people that'd abandoned him. If that was his choice then Johnson would accept it and never mention it again.

He respected his friends after all.

With that final thought in mind he left the cell, giving it one last look over while doing so, before he went back to his original route down the hallway to find the three girls.

* * *

It was several minutes later that he found them, each holding a look of worry between themselves- though why he had no idea- and so he quickly made his way towards the trio.

"Hey, sorry i'm a bit late."

"Will!" he was immediately assaulted with a hug by Index, causing him to fall onto his back with then small nun holding onto his torso in an iron grip.

"Did I… miss something?" he asked confused as the girl on his chest continued to hold him.

Odin was the one to answer. "We felt the usage of magic a kilometre away from here," she explained with her usual stoic face. "We had a feeling you'd gotten into a fight with the saint I felt earlier so these two became worried when you didn't show up on time."

"That so?" she nodded. "Well, I _did_ run into the saint on my way to the hospital-

"You what!?" Johnson felt his ear groan in pain as Index yelled into his ear. "You fought against a saint!? What were you thinking!? Even if she was going easy on you theres no way you could have-"

"-I beat her already half broken body to a pulp and left her in heaven cancellers care." He finished and got back up to his feet and ignored Index's shocked face as he pulled her off him. "After that I… ran into a member of _that_ cabal."

"You ran into one of _them_?"

"Yeah, though I don't know how she managed to actually get into the city…"

Odin furrowed her brows slightly in thought for a brief moment before shrugging her shoulders. "In the end it doesn't matter right now, lets deal with this before we look into _that_ cabal okay Will?"

"Yeah, i'd rather focus on this too." Johnson nodded in agreement before turning his eyes over to Ruiko, who hadn't said a thing since he'd shown up. "Something wrong Ruiko?"

"…This place, just looking at some of the 'rooms' the kids had to live in brings up some painful memories."

Johnson immediately in understanding, while what'd happened here had been horrible beyond what many would believe Ruiko hadn't had the best childhood either.

The city didn't call her the 'Goddess of misfortune' for nothing after all.

"…Moving past that, lets get on with what we came here to do; the sooner we're done the sooner we can head back home." The three girls nodded to the lone makes words.

"Right then, so you said whatever was harming Index was… at the back of her throat?"

"Yeah, finding that wasn't what i'd call a good moment."

"Indeed."

Both the gemstone and the magic god gave their own input on the discovery with awkward expressions on their faces; a nice contrast to the utter look of embarrassment Index was giving at that recollection.

"Well, if its there than all I have to do is touch whatever's there with Imagine breaker and that'll be that?"

Johnson shook his head. "The church probably put on some form of defensive parameter to protect the 'collar' so we'll probably have to fight it; hence why we're doing this here instead of back home."

Ruiko simply gave a nod, accepting her boyfriends reasoning and didn't ask anymore questions.

She was right though, all that she could do now was break the 'collar' that had been put on Index's throat and deal with whatever showed up. With that being the case she went up to the small Nun, waited for her to open her mouth, moved her right hand to enter and touched the back of her throat with her middle finger.

The sound of glass shattering and a cry of pain shook the building.

* * *

"…I guess whatever they came here to do's starting." Libidinem muttered as she and Invidia watched the spectacle of the nun in white floating several inches above the ground with red magic circles overlapping her green eyes emitting an aura of magic power.

…A LOT of magic power.

The full extent of the mana coming from the small girl couldn't be told by the two woman as they watched the boy known as William Johnson take a battle stance while dragging the body of the girl with the Imagine breaker behind him in order to shield her from a blast of heat coming form a magic circle the nun had called into existence; a shield of pure red covering the length of his left arm as he did so.

While this was going on the tall girl clothed in denim calmly stepped back, as if to analyse the situation before waving her hand forward towards the flames.

The flames immediately disappeared from existence.

"!" Both spectators found themselves gasping in shock at this display of power; having never seen the woman with a single eye battle before the pair had been skeptical over what magic she could perform.

Now that scepticism was gone, and they now recognised who this was.

After all, the only known magic god in existence wasn't someone you'd just casually forget about once you'd seen a picture or heard of her.

It did raise a question though as to why she was here however, as neither members of a certain magic cabal could see anything of value that the magic god would want form this city.

Another question was brought up in their minds when Johnson sent what seemed to be an angry remark towards her; something that was only shrugged at as the magic god didn't seem to pay attention to it and waved her hand once more towards the floating nun.

Invisible explosions seemed to strike as the magic circle that hovered behind the nun were destroyed; resulting in her blank face actual freezing in shock, before four more circle came into existence to fire unholy black lightning towards the kneeling pair of Johnson and the girl shielded behind him.

The lightning was instantly dispelled at the touch of the girls stretched out right hand.

Johnson seemed to give the girl a nod before getting both him and her back to their feet and moving an maybe a metre forward before they were forced back by a blast of wind that condensed into miniature tornadoes towards them.

Within the blink of an eye the wave of air became 4 separate tornadoes, 2 each heading towards the pair of knocked down teens.

Faster than Libidinem could follow however the pair were _somehow_ past the raging condensed whirlwinds that continued to cause wreckage around the room they were in. Johnson then quickly moved towards the floating nun, reaching her within an instant but was forced to back away before he could do anything when a blast of light was shot down seemingly from the heavens where he'd bene standing.

"…Enjoying the show?" a voice that sent shivers down their spines spoke up from behind the pair; causing to shift their vision from the battle and to its speaker.

The boy standing before them was of a high school age wearing a grey collar shirt with a black wings on the back with long navy blue shorts with messy black hair and blue eyes that shone with the intensity of a diamond. Strapped to his waist was a Chinese Dao.

"…Who are you?" Libidinem asked cautiously; for the boy had appeared without making a sound.

He simply gave a shrug. "Meh, who I am doesn't really matter at the moment; and so, enjoying the show?"

"…It is certainly an interesting looking into his ability."

"Yeah, Wills ability _is_ rather interesting isn't it? I've only ever seen him use it once before today but he's deadly with it; thats for sure." Despite saying such a ominous thing the boys tone was laid back as if he were discussing the weather with an acquaintances instead of an complete stranger. "Still though, I kinda wish that he'd told me about this so I could help help… oh well I guess."

"?" the embodiment of lust gave the laid back boy a confused look.

"Anyway, since it'll probably take some time before those guys down there are done how about we fight to keep ourselves entertained?"

Before the magician could even give a response the ground they were standing on- made of bricks- shook with the intensity of an earthquake. sending both magicians onto their behinds while the boy kept standing.

"Names Kyle Anderson ladies, and i'll be your source of entertainment for this evening."

With that the ground shook once more and a second battle ensued.

* * *

Johnson moved to the right to avoid a burst of pure white flames that burst from one of the four magical circles hanging behind the form of Index while she gazed at the three of them with an emotionless expression.

The moment the magic circles appeared in her eyes Johnson had felt it wasn't going to be easy to deal with this and he'd been right.

It wasn't easy, it was hard as all hell.

"Damn, we can't even get close to her." Johnson muttered under his breath as he dodged yet another blast of fire and leapt backwards to avoid getting impaled by the transfigured earth below him.

Then room they were in, a place that seemed to amount to a cafeteria, was in total ruins- more then it had been already at the very least- with several of the tables begin thrown around in random directions as torrents of wind were released only to turn into tornadoes an instant later and the various walls and the floor were seared by the various fires and lightning strikes being released by the seemingly possessed nun.

Needless to say but the church had definitely gone all out in making this thing.

"Yeah, with all the different types of magic being thrown at us we're barely able to make it out of the way of her attacks." from Johnson's left Ruiko was breathing out lightly while keeping her right hand ready to intercept any spell that came her way.

"What are you talking about? You just need to stretch out your right hand; i'm the one that's doing all the dodging!"

To prove his point Johnson avoided a shot of lightning that rained down form the heavens while Ruiko just swatted the ice that came at her away causing it to break apart a moment later.

Odin seemed to be faring better then the pair of them it seemed. Not bothering to heed Johnson's words the magic god was releasing the equivalent of a mine field of invisible explosions towards any wayward spell that was shot her way which caused it to be ripped apart in an instant.

Johnson could also see a look of happiness on her face as she destroyed them…

He didn't know what to think about with that.

Shaking his head to remove the unneeded thoughts from his mind Johnson quickly moved forward with a burst of speed that Hermes would have been proud of and reached the face of Index within the blink of an eye.

"Index!" The gemstone yelled to the girl. "Fight the 'collars' control! take back yourself and remove that thing!"

For an instant his words seem to have an effect as a flicker of emotion entered her eyes.

It was quickly crushed though and the defence program shot another bolt of black lightning towards him; causing him to have to quickly move behind Ruiko so she could erase it with imagine breaker.

"This isn't working." Odin said as she appeared next to the pair. "If we continue with this farce of a battle we'll only tire ourselves out; we need to change tactics."

Johnson agreed to her words. They hadn't planned for anything like this and so didn't have a concrete strategy in place to combat it which left them with reaching the inevitable scenario she'd mentioned.

And while he certainly could try to simply pick Ruiko up and move straight up to Index and have her touch her with imagine breaker such a thing wasn't so simple.

For one Index seemed to see Ruiko as the biggest threat, as evident of that the majority the spells she'd shot out had been fired at her and two he couldn't stay within close proximity to Index for more then an instant which wouldn't be enough time to place imagine breaker on her.

In short they were stuck and couldn't move to deal with the problem.

"Threat levels confirmed." Speaking for the first time since the battle had begun Index's voice came out like that of a robots, cold and calculative. "Threat levels for William Johnson… ranged from minimal to exceptional; caution advised when dealing with this foe." Her gaze turned from Johnson to Othinus. "Threat level of Magic God Othinus… extreme, advisement to destroy this enemy as quickly as possible."

Then the defence program turned to Ruiko. "Threat levels of Saten Ruiko… threat reaches critical levels. Analysis of threat level completed; objective: Removal of Saten Ruiko." With that said Index opened her mouth and began to sing.

It was a song that sent chills down the two humans spines; it was not a song made for human comprehension.

Within moments of the songs chanting the lightning, the ice and the flames stopped and the four magic circles joined to create two once again.

What happened next could only be described as unscientific and against all the natural laws of the world. The two magic circles in Index's eyes grew to a phenomenal size before exploding outwards to create a light that became corrupted by black lightning; leaving a _gap in space_.

Truly such a phenomenon made no sense and couldn't be understood by even the most brilliant of scientist and scholars.

But even so, Johnson understood it easily. This was it, the ultimate attack of the Index Librorum Prohibitorum.

Unperturbed by anything the world had the cracks began to spread and spread through the air until a gaping maw could be seen before splitting apart and the full size of the _gap_ that had been created 'opened'.

Before anything could be done a light that wouldn't be out of place within a sci-fi setting was shot out and made contact with Ruiko's right hand.

The sound of glass breaking could be heard but the beam itself remained stronger than ever as it pushed against the sixteen year olds palm with no sign of stopping.

Johnson quickly realised it was the same situation that had came about when he'd fought Stiyl's Innocentius, no matter how much or how often it is destroyed the beam would always regenerate as long as the caster was conscious to activate the spell.

Conversely however it also meant that she wouldn't be able to actual do anything else but use the spell; leaving her defenceless from casting anything else.

If only the spell wasn't being fired at Ruiko.

"I can't… hold this for long!" Ruiko gave out a small shout but it was unneeded; the sight of her being pushed back by the power of the beam of light was proof enough on how she was faring.

He had to do something. If things kept up the way it was going the beam was going to win their struggle and eradicate Ruiko before she could readjust herself.

William Johnson wasn't a person that could allow such an ending to occur.

And so…

"!" a stiff yelp was heard from Ruiko as Johnson pushed her out of the way while a the same time opening his own left hand and took the beam of light head-on.

To reiterate William Johnson had the power of complete dominance over his own blood. But lets think, what exactly does such a power entail?

For starters it allowed Johnson to speed up the flow of the blood in his system to have the internal organs work at a faster rate; which conversely allowed him to move at an enhanced speed depending on the acceleration as well as allow him to create blades of his blood to sport form his fingertips.

But, as expected, that was only the tip of the iceberg. He could create shields out of his blood and other such constructs as well; and as such that was what was currently blocking the white beam from eradicating him.

But just that wouldn't be enough, as the beam seemed to be a combination of all 103,000 grimoires in Index's head it would be able to destroy it in seconds and so it had. Within the ten seconds of the standoff Johnson's shield had been destroyed over a thousand shields already with it being destroyed over fifty times every instant.

The reason Johnson was able to hold the shield despite it being destroyed that fast was due to another aspect of his ability:

He was able to accelerate the rate of which the blood cells replicated themselves.

In other words as long as Johnson had a single drop of blood in his body he would be able to bring his entire blood circulation system back up and running within a matter of seconds.

This when combined with a shield made it impossible for it to ever be broken so long as Johnson was able to keep his concentration on its regeneration.

Still though, he was under no illusion that the shield would be able to fold the power of the beam of light forever. While he'd only been combating it for around half a minute now he could feel the different types of magic being used on him.

It was clear to the gemstone that the defence program was combining all the magic within the 103,000 grimoires in order to create this beam; a replica of the spell dragons breath that was based on the dragon St George had defeated according to what he was hearing from Odin.

"Reassessing threat levels of the target William Johnson: threat level has been brought up to critical at the presence of his power and protectiveness of Saten Ruiko. New objective: the elimination of William Johnson." Saying this the defence program mercilessly continued the assault of the dragons breath against his shield of blood.

"This is our chance; while its distracted by me get over there and destroy it with Imagine Breaker!" hearing Johnson's yell Ruiko gave a quick nod before springing to her feet and moved towards the still floating Index unopposed.

However…

"Watch out!" moving at a speed the human eye couldn't see Odin had moved next to Ruiko and dragged her back as another flash of lightning struck the ground the pair had once stood.

It seemed the defence program wasn't using all of its power in the dragons breath and was still able to protect itself.

Damn.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" seeing the strike of lightning almost hit the pair of girls Johnson allowed himself to cut loose a bit and imputed more power into the shield; turning it into a blast of blood that was combating the beam.

Seeing it not being effective he increased the rate of regeneration; changing it from 10,000 to 1,000,000 in a second causing the power of the blood to multiply the power by a hundred hold and combating the beam; slowly but surely pushing the dragons breath back to the cracks it had appeared from.

"Reassessing threat level: William Johnson had become unbeatable with current measures. Increasing power output of mana form 25% to 50% now."

"!" Johnson released a gasp as he felt himself being pushed back again as the power in the spell was increased; at the same time the number of lightning bolts form the heavens were increasing towards the two girls and so were forced to constantly move to avoid the strikes.

At the same time- though he couldn't see it- the lightning was starting to hit where two other combatants were fighting but as he didn't know they were there he paid it no heed and instead focused on increasing the regeneration to 2,000,000.

"Increasing power to 60%"

3,000,000

"75%"

4,000,000

"90%"

6,000,000

Had Johnson been focusing on anything but the power he was adding into his blood to combat the dragons breath we would have seen Othinus land next to him and place her hand over his outstretched palm.

"100%… spell dragons breath has reached its maximum output, yet the target William Johnson still stands. Reevaluating strategy."

Johnson could feel his body shake from the amount of power that was being thrown his way. The beam had turned into something akin to that of a volley of cannon fire which had forced him to turn his strategy back into guarding with a shield in order to shield himself.

He had to act now, while the defence program was rethinking its strategy in eliminating him he had to create a window of opportunity for Ruiko to reach her.

He could only see one way un doing that.

He increased the rate of regeneration to 1,000,000,000 within the spam of a second and _pushed._

The effects were instantaneous, caught of guard by the sudden attack the defence program was unable to do anything and was pushed back by the force of the beam of blood he'd been shooting when it'd reached her.

This had caused her to be pushed back and flip, causing the beam of dragons breath to be shot up into the sky.

* * *

"…Whew, you're pretty good magician." The boy know as Kyle Anderson said after releasing a short breath as he gazed over to the kneeled over magician known as Libidinem who was breathing rather heavily.

"…Damn you… stupid esper; i'm not a… frontline fighter so why… are you forcing me to do this?"

"I was bored."

THUMP!  
…Kyle felt a sweat drop run down his head as the girl head butted the ground.

"Uh, you okay there magician-chan?"

"BORED! You did all this because you were BORED!? My dress is ruined because of you!"

…Kyle couldn't deny that, the once clean blood red dress she was wearing was covered in various dirt marks and had a rip here and there from a stray stone he'd made.

"Sorry… I guess."

He didn't sound that apologetic even to him.

Libidinem didn't seem to be paying attention to him anymore though and instead set her gaze towards her partner. "And why are you just standing there Invidia!? Aren't you supposed to be helping me here!?"

Invidia simply gave a shrug. "He challenged you to a fight little lust not me; besides i'd figured you'd be able to win fairly easily considering our auras of sin." saying that the older of the two took her gaze off her partner and looked over to their opponent. "Speaking of our auras how come you don't seem to be affected by them?"

Kyle gave a simple shrug. "Same reason Will would be most likely; I know its there so I can just ignore it."

Invidia opened her mouth to speak again but was cut off by a sudden stream of lights being shot up into the sky.

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…Damn, wonder what caused that?" Kyle's question fell on deaf ears.

* * *

"I can't believe that guy just left like that!"

"…"

Vector released _another_ sigh as he was forced to listen to Mikoto's ranting over Johnson's actions towards her over the past year. Having been listening to her for half an hour and her only _now_ getting to what's had just happened only showed just how much frustration the middle schooler felt towards the older boy.

Vector simply wished be didn't have to listen to it but he wasn't going to risk using his power to turn off the sound vectors from reaching his ears in case it reactivated his reflection as well.

He really didn't want that.

"Hey! Are you listening?"

' _Unfortunately._ ' was what he wants dot say but he held his tongue.

"Yeah i'm listening third rate, what do you want?"

"…How'd you tow meet?"

"…Huh?"

"How'd you and Will meet; he never mentioned he knew you so was it recently or-"

"I met that guy three years ago, we became friends a few weeks after that over the course of that summer."

Judging by the expressions currently on Minot's face that didn't seem to be the answer she wanted to hear. "Oh, I see…"

"Why the sudden topic change anyway? Also, why do you care; you've made it quite clear you hate the guy so-"

"I never said I hate him!"

"Could'a fooled me third rate considering all the bitching and moaning you've been doing since he left."

"…" Mikoto was silent after that.

"…*sigh*, you third rate, I can't tell you why that guy acts that way toward you but I do know he's doing it to keep you at arms length."

"…Huh?"

"As I said I don't know why he's acting like this but he avoids you for the simple fact that he wants to keep you safe from certain people within this city as well from himself."

"But that makes no sense! I'm the third strongest esper in Academy City; I can take care of myself."

"That power of yours may make you strong against most people but against someone who knows how do deal with it what'll you do then huh?" the girl gave no answer. "Exactly, there are people like that here that'll eat you alive if you meet them- hell three years ago I was one of them- and that guy's trying to get rid of them all."

"By himself?"  
Vector shook his head. "He's… got a group called UNITY at his back and call, that and he's acquainted with all the level 5's but 2… and 6 so he's got some strong people that can help him with that goal of his."

"His goal?"

"Yeah, the-" Vector's words were cut off at the sound of a low rumbling and an odd light that could be seen firing up to the sky from district 10.

"…"

"…"

""What the hell did that idiot do this time!?""

* * *

From the windowless building set up in district 7 a person that looked like an adult, yet a child; like a man, yet a woman; like a saint, yet a criminal could be seen floating upside-down in a tube filled with red liquid connected to wires with an infinite amount of monitors filling its view with a small frown of its face.

The 'human' known as Aliester Crowley was not happy. While he was sure that the gemstone William Johnson hadn't intended such an outcome it change the fact that he dragons breath that the Index Librorum Prohibitorum had fired had just destroyed the satellite tree diagram after being reflected by Johnson's power.

That power, truly the answer to an odd question but one that showed more usefulness then one may have originally believed if the right application was used in regards to various fields from medical to combat to simple comfort.

Not that the 'human' cared for such things but still, the frown wouldn't leave his face.

Why must this boy continue to cause problems for him?

His various plans- around fifty of them so far- had been ruined by that boy since his arrival into the city- from his plans with Accelerator to some of his plans with the Imagine breaker.

Even his backup plans were slowly being made unusable due to that boy interacting with his various level 5's.

"Getting angry about that boy again Aliester?"

"…It is of no concern of yours Aiwass."

A golden haired being, with a tall and thin stature addressed the greatest magician in history casually from the side wearing loose white clothing that covers its body entirely. It was an indescribable being that could be confused as an angel and would even admit to being different to that of ordinary angels but that was where the description would end.

After all, the being known as Aiwass wasn't an existence a human could comprehend.

The being known as Aiwass gave a something that could be considered a mixture of emotions in a small smirk. "It is a shame you hate that boy, I personally find him rather interesting; especially when compared to you."

"…Why have you shown yourself to me?"

"I was bored so I decided to drop in."

"As always your way of speaking is far too casual."

"Well we all can't be unexpressive bores like you Aliester." The creature released something that could be considered a laugh. "But seriously, you should express some emotion more often, its rather refreshing and it'll probably… what was that phrase I once heard… oh yes, it should remove that stick up your ass."

"…" Aliester found himself speechless at the beings words.

"Now isn't that interesting?" Unperturbed by his own words and his speaking partners reaction to them Aiwass turned its attention towards the screen that showed a battle reaching its conclusion.

* * *

Johnson released a small smile. "Now!"

Not needing to be told twice Ruiko rushed forward and reached the nun in a matter of seconds.

"Index!" the right hand that negated all pressed itself into Index's face.

The sound of glass breaking could be heard and the defence program went silent.

"…" a collective sigh of reliefs could be heard from the three individuals as the oppressive aura that had gripped the room was released and the feeling of victory filled their chests.

"We did it."

* * *

"Well I guess that's that." Kyle muttered to himself as he made his way to the edge of the roof he and the two magicians were standing on.

"You think i'll just left you leave!?" Libidinem yelled at the top of her lungs and rushed towards the uncaring teen…

Only to fall flat on her face after taking a few steps.

"You're tired girl, I suggest you get some rest. If you want we can finish this up at a later date but now, since Will's done down there, i'll be heading back to my dorm for some z's." With that the boy Kyle Anderson leapt off the roof.

"…Huh, a rather interesting boy I have to say." Invidia said after a few moments.

"…I just don't care any more." Libidinem released as she drifted into the embrace of sleep.

* * *

"Well thats it." Aiwass spoke as it took its gaze form the monitor. "As theres nothing interesting going on any more i'll just let myself out Aliester; have a pleasant night." With that the being known as AIwass vanished from the current plain and not its own 'place of existence'.

"…Where did it even hear that phrase from?" muttering this to himself the general superintendent of Academy City returned his gaze to the infinite monitors in-front of him.

* * *

"Hey, how you feeling?" The magician Stiyl Magnus awoke to those words within a hospital room wearing a white hospital gown instead of his regular priest garb.

Facing him on his right was his old friend William Johnson who was giving him an apologetic gaze alongside a genuine smile.

Stiyl couldn't help but give one of his own back.

"I've been better… what day is it?"

"The 21st, you've been out for a whole day."

Stiyl couldn't help but raise his brow in surprise at that; he'd received one hard punch from the boy beside him and he'd been out for a whole day? That was ridiculous!

Nevertheless though he could he only accept it as the truth; especially considering it had come from his mouth. "Hows Index?"

Johnson released a small chuckle. "First thing- well almost first thing anyway- you ask after waking up from being in hospital and the first thing on your mind was Index? Could you be any more revealing on your feelings for the girl?"

At his words Stiyl's face turned the same shade of red as his dyed hair. "Sh-shut up! I don't like Index in that way! I… I just want to protect her is all."

"Not buying that Stiyl, your magic name was Fortis931- I prove why my name is the strongest here- right? Clearing your saying that you'll be the strongest ever in order to protect something- that something being a certain nun we both care about. Who'd make such a pledge if they didn't have any romantic feelings towards them huh?"

By the end of his words Johnson was giving his old friend a teasing smirk.

This only caused his cheeks to a darker shade of red.

"Haha, you can just admit it to me you know, its just your old friend asking if his best friends got a crush on his sister in all but blood here."

"And what would you do if I said I did!?" The words came out before he could stop them. Johnson's smirk only grew across his face at the confession while Stiyl's cheeks turned even more red- if it went any further Johnson may have to worry for his friends health.

"So… you admit it huh?"

"…"

"Fine, be stubborn; I don't really care in the end anyway." Saying that Johnson got up to his feet- as he had been sitting on a nearby chair throughout the small talk they'd been having- and began to make his way to the door.

"Anyway, I just came in to check up on ya while I was getting patched up from last night." it was only after Johnson said this that Stiyl noticed that his left arm was in a cast.

"What happened to-"

"-My arm? A dragon forced me to drive it into overdrive to block its breath." The meaning didn't connect into Stiyl's brain for a few seconds before he connected the dots.

Dragons Breath, he'd just been told that Johnson had blocked Dragons breath!

"Other than that though i'm fine, the defence program the church set up has been dealt with and Index's memory won't have to be erased at a yearly interval anymore. Just to tell you now Stiyl the church has got a lot to answer of in regards to what they forced Index to do and what they put her through." The calm and friendly tone Johnson had been using for the entire conversation had briefly turned cold and hostile at that last part; causing a shiver of fear to crawl up Stiyl's spine.

"Make sure sure to tell Big sis Laura I said hi and that i'd like to talk with her at her earliest convenience when you get back to London if that's alright with you okay." Despite the phrasing of the request and the politeness in his town Stiyl could tell it wasn't optional for him.

He did agree however that the Archbishop had a lot to answer for in regards to her orders.

"…What about Kanzaki, is she here too?" Still almost cursed himself for almost forgetting about asking about his partner but by the way Johsnon seemed to clamp up at the mention of her he could already guess her condition.

"yeah, about that… I kinda… put her into intensive care… haha." His words were sheepish and his town was filled with regret but that didn't release any of Stiyl's shock of the statement.

No matter how much he may sugarcoat it Johnson had just admitted to beating one of the less than twenty saints in the world. Something like that couldn't just be ignored.

"Anyway, hope you get released soon so we can catch up for real; see you when you get let out." Saying that Johnson stopped talking and left the room for real; leaving Stiyl alone with his thoughts.

* * *

"Haa… well thats that." Johnson muttered this to himself as he made his way down to Vectors room; passing the room he himself had been in and where the three girls he'd been with last night were still sleeping as we went.

Along the way Johnson looked down sadly at his left arm… or rather what was left of his arm. Had anyone seen under the bandages they would have found a stump that ended at the shoulder with what could only be described as with blood cells multiplying at such a scale that they were taking the shape of an arm.

Johnson again cursed his reaction that caused him to lose the arm but at the same time accepted that it had happened and merely wanted on from there.

After they'd shut the defence program down the three of them had been about to leave the special ability institute when what could only be described as feathers of light began to rain down from the sky as if to signify the fall of an angel.

It hadn't taken a hard guess to say they were apart of the dragons breath that Index had fired a them and seeing as they'd come from the and so they'd planned on avoiding touching them but as Ruiko had gone to pick up Index a single feather had drifted towards her head from behind where she wouldn't be able to notice it.

Johnson had acted fast but in a hasty manner that let no room for thought of using his powers to destroy it and had instead caught the feather on his arm instead.

The instant he had done so the arm had disintegrated.

Johnson quickly shook the thoughts away before the memories of the pain came back and focused on heading over to see Vector; reaching his objective a minute or so later and went through the door without so much as knocking.

The sight that greeted him brought a smile to his face.

On the bed Johnson could see Vector sleeping peacefully on his bed with a small smile on his face while Mikoto seemed to be laying her head on his chest with an- admittedly- cute look on her face.

That look caused Johnson to sigh out in nostalgia for he hadn't see that look on her face for over two years. For the first time since then she actually seemed to look… at peace with herself. He couldn't blame herself for only looking like that when asleep though; as a level 5 she was probably always under some stress about something or other.

When she was asleep however she didn't need to worry about of that and so could actually look like the fourteen year old she actually.

Johnson quietly, so as to not wake the two occupants of the room up, crept up over to the bed and gently moved a loose hair on Mikoto's head and placed it to the side of her head behind her ear.

"Good to see you relaxed for once Miko-imouto." Seeing that it'd be cruel to wake the pair up Johnson crept back to the door and closed with the same tenderness he would a child to ensure no sound came out.

Had he looked back as he left he would have seen a soft smile grow on Mikoto's face.

* * *

 **Well… thats the end of the Index arc. Sorry if you guys found the fight against John pen mode lackluster but as i've said several times fight scenes aren't my forte and so that's what came out in the end.**

 **The next chapter will probably be character building and generally having the characters relax after dealing with the events of this arc with the next arc starting the chapter after that… or i'll do something completely different. IN the end who knows… of what I know; haha.**

 **Anyway, hope you enjoyed this chapter and i'll see you guys next time.**

 **p.s. sorry for the abrupt ending here; I honestly ran out of ideas here but if enough of you complain then i'll either add a bit more or rewrite it.**


End file.
